Michele Austin

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.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Brenda Blethyn, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Timothy Spall

The unvarnished truth of life as a doctor working in obstetrics and gynaecology.

Dir. Adam Kay · With Ben Whishaw, Ambika Mod, Rory Fleck-Byrne

During a year, a very content couple approaching retirement are visited by friends and family less happy with their lives.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen

Pansy is a woman so full of rage that every interaction she has devolves into lashing out, whether at her utterly cowed husband and son, or random strangers who have the temerity to address her. In contrast, her younger sister Chantelle lives with her two vivacious daughters and plies a successful trade as a hairdresser, putting clients at their ease all day long. Yet beneath Pansy’s abrasive exterior are hints of a more fragile psyche, one motivated by fear and damaged by repressed pain.

Dir. Mike Leigh · With Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Michele Austin, David Webber