This review was itself criticised by Professor Marcus of Baylor College of Medicine, who called it "a dismissive rant that misrepresents the text."

Guinness based Professor Marcus on the popular comedian and actor Alastair Sim.

"I read the story many years ago but did not make the connection," said Professor Marcus.

"It's like a lost civilization," said Professor Marcus of Columbia, who grew up in the Bronx and often dreams about it.

Playing to the crowd ... Peter Capaldi as Professor Marcus, and string players in The Ladykillers.

The Woolf that Professor Marcus knows and loves is funny, witty and clever, a committed feminist and pacifist, a productive writer and editor.

Professor Marcus has taught at the university for 37 years and has led many evaluations of the faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Professor Marcus's gang only ever had one cello.

The Ladykillers (1955) was the last great Ealing Comedy; Guinness played Professor Marcus, the mock sinister leader of a peculiarly inept gang of burglars.

Beneath the sinister, bucktoothed exterior of Professor Marcus, the con man in "The Ladykillers," there also are traces of Stan.