And there is an amusingly sardonic turn by Ian McKellen as a visiting South African who happens to witness Paul's night at the Kittredges'.

He was a man of a sharp and sardonic turn of mind.

Vernon Lusby's choreography illustrated each sardonic turn of the fable, and the design was a visual marvel of symbolic scenery, costumes and gargoyle masks by Ed Wittstein.

By turns earnest and sardonic, the unusual five-hour gathering captured the welfare issue in all its complexity.

R., it is true, had not seen the fun of it: what humour R. possessed was of a sardonic turn and he had no facility for taking in good part a joke at his own expense.

Again and again, they drive in the nail with a single blow-a sardonic turn of phrase, a pause, a silence that allows us to draw our own conclusions.

Alex Jennings, in the role of the rather remote and inactive title character, makes a dim presence, but Ian Bannen, doing a sardonic turn as the head of British intelligence, brings a spark to the screen whenever he pops by.

Bursting with photographs that are by turns sensuous, sardonic and surprising, "Man Ray 1890-1976" offers ample testimony to the artist's inventiveness and to the diversity of his output.

This want of callousness accounted for his sardonic turn of mind and his biting speeches.

But there was something daunting in the very ease and impudence of his carriage, the small, sardonic turn of his lip, and the guileless clarity of the black eyes when they happened to encounter Cadfael's.