“It’s a good old-fashioned drama about betrayal and conspiracy, mixed with lots of sexual tension,” says West, whose background with the BBC was much more in character-driven drama of this sort than with the kind of pumped-up action and pyrotechnics he handled so efficiently in Con-Air.

Brenner with fellow investigator - and former squeeze - Sarah Sunhill (Madeleine Stowe) and Colonel Fowler (Clarence Williams III), who will do anything to protect the General’s name; General ‘Fighting Joe’ Campbell himself (James Cromwell); and General’s Daughter director Simon West.

Novelist DeMille, who was inspired to write the novel by all the changes and tensions that have been introduced into the world of the US military by the rapid progress made by women soldiers into the upper echelons of command, is adamant that The General’s Daughter is first and foremost a psychological thriller in an unusual setting “Everyone’s seen a murder mystery set in the civilian world,” he argues, “but not everyone knows how things go during a military investigation. Defendants - possible suspects - don’t have the same rights as a civilian. There is no Fifth Amendment: loyalty, duty, honour and discipline are a very important part of military justice. The Army is like an extended family. From Day One, you take an oath of allegiance, not only to your country but also to the military. The counterpoint between how the military behaves and how the civilian world behaves is growing wider, and I think that’s what makes for fascinating drama.”

If the Army is a family, Travolta’s Warrant Officer Brenner is something of a prodigal son: a career soldier turned cop who, like most of the characters on whom Travolta has put his mark, does things a little differently, a little more edgily.

“Brenner has been around the block,” says the star. “He’s worldly, he’s been to war, he’s won medals. He’s looked death in the face but, on the other hand, he’s so light about the evil he sees. I find that policemen have to do that. Add the military complexities and you really have to be light about disaster. There’s where you get your dry wit. That complexity is what pulled me into this.