Pride

Director: Matthew Warchus
Cast: Imelda Staunton, Andrew Scott, Bill Nighy, Dominic West, Freddie Fox
It’s the summer of 1984, Margaret Thatcher is in power and the Miners’ Strike is causing great hardship, especially in one remote Welsh pit village.

Despite some misgivings, a group of young gay activists led by bolshy Mark Ashton (Ben Schnetzer) decide to raise money for the community, but when they travel down to deliver the funds they’re unprepared for the homophobia that greets them.

However, it transpires that a taciturn village elder (Nighy) has long been in the closet, and the strikers’ wives, headed by Imelda Staunton’s no-nonsense Helfina, are both grateful and curious. And so begins the extraordinary story of two seemingly alien communities who form a surprising and ultimately triumphant partnership.

In only his second film, noted theatre director Matthew Warchus (Matilda the Musical) expertly finesses knowing humour, indignation and sexual politics, while the performances are uniformly pitch-perfect.