Back in 2006, the American Museum of Natural History was struggling to attract visitors and facing budget cuts. Then along came Night At The Museum starring Ben Stiller as Larry Daley, an on-the-road-to-nowhere security guard forced to take the graveyard shift and suddenly they were queuing around the block to see the primeval beasts and historic statues that "apparently" come to life at night.

Now, in the third instalment, it's the British Museum's turn. Stiller, below, is back as Larry in Shawn Levy's crazy history celebration which opens with an animatronics' fiasco during a black-tie dinner caused by the ancient Egyptian relic - the Tablet of Akmenrah - running amok. As this is history done as family entertainment we not only get Sir Ben Kingsley as Pharaoh, but Downton's Dan Stevens as Sir Lancelot who ends up in a production of Camelot the musical. Of course, a night at the museum wouldn't be the same without the return of minuscule Roman general Octavius (Steve Coogan) and cowboy Jedediah (Owen Wilson). And then there's Teddy Roosevelt played once again by the late Robin Williams who always brought more to the party than any other player.

It's impossible not to feel sad as we are reminded of what cinema has lost with his tragic passing. With Ricky Gervais, Dick Van Dyke and the late Mickey Rooney bringing up the rear, there is every reason to fill an afternoon with a Night at the Museum and give your children an anarchic taste of history outside the curriculum.