Shelagh Stephenson

As the Falklands War looms, an RAF recruit falls for a young barmaid, but their romance is quickly complicated with some surprising news.

In a dystopian future, the population is divided between the elite "numbers" and the destitute "names" who escape the hardships of the their lives at a magic cabaret run by Zax. When Zax falls for a slumming-it "number" he builds a robot replica of her.

The funny, heart-warming and moving new film, from director Lewis Gilbert. When Violet Heaney's three daughters return home for her funeral, each sister finds her own way of coping with her loss. For Teresa, the eldest, it's herbal tea, obsessive cleaning and hectoring her long-suffering husband, Frank. Catherine, the youngest, resorts to retail therapy, industrial quantities of marijuana and manic phone calls to her elusive boyfriend in Barcelona. Middle daughter Mary seeks consolation in professional detachment and the arms of her lover, Mike. Like Mary, Mike's a doctor. Unlike Mary, he's married... The sisters soon discover that their early memories have grown fuzzy over time and the past becomes fuzzier still as they attempt to cope with their mother's parting.

Shirley is the youngest of eight children from a mixed race marriage. By the time she is a toddler the family have moved to the all white area of Splott and by the time she is 12 Shirley has discovered she has an extraordinary voice and can earn money singing in pubs around the docks after her father if jailed for sexual crimes. As a young teenager she begins singing and dancing in 'coloured review shows'. But it is a chance meeting with struggling agent Mike Sullivan that changes her life forever. He promises to make her a star, but has no idea of the personal sacrifice that will mean for the teenaged Shirley.