Inferno - Channel 5 | What to Watch

In his third outing as smarty pants Harvard professor Robert Langdon, Tom Hanks hits his stride - as does director Ron Howard

In his third outing as smarty pants Harvard professor Robert Langdon, Tom Hanks hits his stride - as does director Ron Howard.

Of course, Dan Brown’s thriller is silly, but there is a clever big twist and much enjoyment to be had from the preposterous plot.

It kicks off with a concussed and amnesiac Langdon waking up in Florence and being tasked with stopping a fiendish plot to unleash a global plague.

Cue lots of dashing about between picturesque tourist landmarks in Florence, Venice and Istanbul as Dante's Divine Comedy provides the cryptic clues Langdon, with help from plucky English medic Felicity Jones, needs to decode in a nail-biting race against time.

Finally looking comfortable in the role, Hanks lends proceedings straight-faced conviction, as do classy co-stars Jones, Bollywood legend Irrfan Khan, as the enigmatic chief of a private security company, and Sidse Babett Knudsen, as the formidable head of the World Health Organisation who provides the hero with a welcome age-appropriate love interest.