08/01/11….Thame Cinema 4 All –

THIS Saturday – January 8, at Thame Cinema 4 All – MADE IN DAGENHAM – UK 2010 15 Cert 113 minutes; starring Bob Hoskins, Daniel Mays, Geraldine James and Miranda Richardson.

There could hardly be anything more exotic and unfamiliar in mainstream commercial cinema than the story of a successful strike. But this is what screenwriter director Nigel Cole gives us with this good-humoured comedy – almost, but not exactly, a shopfloor version of Calendar Girls, also directed by Cole.

Made in Dagenham is based on the Ford women car workers’ strike of 1968, in which female staff went on strike for the same wage as the men. This commanded headlines, galvanised the political debate, and indirectly led to the Equal Pay Act of 1970.

It stars Sally Hawkins as Rita, confident and forthright as the ordinary working mum who finds herself elevated to the position of striker-spokeswoman, battling not merely against the bosses but the smug chaps’ club in general: employers and trade unionists getting ready to stitch up a duplicitous compromise behind her back. Miranda Richardson plays Barbara Castle, the cabinet minister not-so-secretly sympathetic to the women strikers and exasperated at the ambiguous evasions of her own boss, Harold Wilson, played in cameo by John Sessions.

A feel-good film for a winter evening!
This Saturday 8th January, doors open 7.30, film starts 8pm – Admission