OPENS SEPTEMBER 10, CERT 12A, 94 MINS

Ron Burgundy is a newsreader from a distant era, some time deep in the 1970s, a time “before cable” when orange-brown rollnecks were the height of fashion and real men “musked up” with gallons of after shave. Ron is the number one broadcaster in San Diego, but when beautiful young reporter Christina Applegate is made his co-anchor, Ron’s testosterone-fuelled world begins to fall apart. It’s just not right, the idea of a woman reading the news: as one of Ron’s clueless colleagues says: “It’s anchorman, not anchorlady.”

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Forget this thin plot, though, because Anchorman is really just a series of sketches based around Will Ferrell’s droll turn as Ron, a shameless chauvinist who thinks ‘diversity’ is “the name of an old, old wooden ship”. Inevitably this kind of comedy?based on improvs by the cast?is a hit-and-miss affair, but there are more than enough funny lines for 90 minutes, and even the lame gags are executed with amiable good humour.