If you ever go out to the pictures, or even if you only watch television programmes about the pictures, you can hardly fail to have heard about a film called Silence of the Lambs, directed by Jonathan Demme. It’s the story of hideous but charming serial murderer named Dr Hannibal Lekter, played by Anthony Hopkins, and an FBI agent, played by Jodie Foster, who uses the incarcerated Lekter’s homicidal instincts to track down another serial killer currently at large.