After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to Cynthia, a working class white woman.
Acting
Brenda Blethyn's BAFTA-winning nervous breakdown
Direction
Mike Leigh's months-long rehearsal improv process
Writing
Dialogue so real you'll check if your walls are thin
Director
Mike Leigh
Brenda Blethyn
Cynthia Rose Purley
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Hortense Cumberbatch
Timothy Spall
Maurice Purley
Phyllis Logan
Monica Purley
Claire Rushbrook
Roxanne Purley
Lee Ross
Paul
Lesley Manville
The Social Worker
Elizabeth Berrington
Jane
Michele Austin
Dionne
Ron Cook
Stuart
Trevor Laird
Hortense's Brother
Brian Bovell
Hortense's Brother
Emma Amos
Girl with Scar
Clare Perkins
Hortense's Sister in Law
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Brenda Blethyn and Marianne Jean-Baptiste didn't meet until their characters did—Leigh kept them separate for months to capture genuine first-meeting awkwardness.
GB
