In person, however, Spall is quite the Dickensian dandy, resplendent in a pinstriped waistcoat, with mutton-chop sideburns and a Brillo-pad moustache.
It is not the computer hardware, which is distributed around a mesh waistcoat then hidden under a jacket.
The proud parents met five years earlier, at the university's medical school, where Janet caught sight of Michael's black beard and fancy waistcoat above the cadaver he was dissecting and decided that he might be a bit fast but she'd risk it.
What a beauty he was, with pink waistcoat, highwayman's mask, chestnut wings, dove-grey skull-cap: the butcher bird, the red-backed shrike, guarding his larder.
On Wednesday, Lebedev also sported a relatively sober blazer and waistcoat – albeit teamed with a black shirt and dark designer jeans – in contrast to his formal attire, which occasionally appears to be regally inspired.
Meanwhile, the figures, modelled by friends, acquaintances and amenable members of the working class, were done in the studio where Brown agonised for weeks over such details as the potboy's fancy waistcoat.
She would have preferred the Beatles, but interpreted his seriousness, accurately, as a counterpoint to the waistcoat.
Or worse: one man who testified to Mr Lanusse has had his house shot at three times and now wears a bulletproof waistcoat whenever he leaves home.The sums involved are large.
Strutting round the stage like cockerels, hand on heart and waistcoat palpitating, they strike dread into managers the world over.
The upstart Yasha is played a touch too overtly as a "new Russian" wearing a yellow suit and lime waistcoat, while Lopakhin, hard-working and dressed in black, is more inclined to win people's sympathy.
Taylor sports a fancy white waistcoat and a jabot with a jewelled pin, but there is a foxiness about the lips that makes you want to check your wallet.
