Working-class couple Shirley and Cyril are in conflict over whether they should have children, their problems with 'yuppies' moving into the neighbourhood and outpricing them, and the advent of Cyril's ageing mother's seventieth birthday.
Acting
Edna Doré's Mrs. Bender is devastatingly authentic.
Writing
Leigh's improvised dialogue cuts like social observation.
Direction
Tight framing that traps you in every excruciating moment.
Director
Mike Leigh
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Mike Leigh developed the script through months of improvisation workshops with the cast, building characters from real working-class Londoners he observed.
Released in 1988, the film captures the precise moment when Thatcher's Britain fractured between 'no such thing as society' individualism and dying communal working-class identity.
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