A Hitch in time

In the red corner, 45-year-old English actor Toby Jones, who has recreated real-life characters like Truman Capote and superagent Irving "Swifty" Lazar".

In the blue corner, 75-year-old Welsh actor Sir Anthony Hopkins, whose even more extensive impersonation credits include President Nixon, Adolf Hitler, CS Lewis and Pablo Picasso.

Their challenge? To take on and "lick" cinema history's most recognisable filmmaker, the late, great Alfred Hitchcock

Jones's bout was in The Girl, in which Hitch hired and then terrorised novice actress Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller) who was making her movie debut with The Birds.

Hopkins' tussle is captured on the big screen in Hitchcock, which deals with the way the Master of Suspense revived his flagging career with a personally-financed, black-and-white horror movie called Psycho, especially famous for "killing off" its leading lady Janet Leigh (Scarlet Johansson) less than half an hour into the film.

Intriguingly, the bald, rotund director was 60 at the time of shooting his classic shocker - exactly halfway between the respective ages of his two brave interpreters.

The verdict so far is that Jones is the winner by a hair (less) breath.