“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street,” 26/27 July 2008 (2007), DVD. Wow, this is the goriest Sondheim imaginable. I prefer the stage vision of the murders to this bloodfest from Tim Burton. Johnny Depp stars as Benjamin Barker aka Sweeney Todd, returned from transport to find his wife and daughter or take his revenge. He does so with the help of Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter, Burton’s wife), who loves him and makes the worst pies in a brutal, horrific London. Sacha Baron Cohen excels as his first paying customer, Alan Rickman is the unjust judge, and Timothy Sprall is the judge’s brutal beadle. The Todd’s daughter and his young friend, the sailor, is a weak conceit. Everyone loses in this dark comedy of cruelty and injustice. My dad saw this on stage in its first week of its run ‘back in the day’ and declared it the great American opera, I watched Lansbury do it on TV and loved it This is hard to watch if you’re, like me, too quick to accept the reality of that cruel universe it displays. See it, but be warned. London is anything but beautiful. Have a pie my dear?.