This is an early effort by Mike Leigh, a writer/director I really like. It seems to have been part of a BBC TV film series. I can’t say enough about the acting up and down the cast list. Brenda Blethyn and Lesley Manviile did the same superlative job I would come to expect from them in later roles. And I guess Phil Davis must have done a great job also, for he made me dislike his character intensely, and later I realized I have enjoyed a lot of his later work. Like with most of Mike Leigh’s family dramas, the story builds up to an emotional crisis point, and then settles back into a slig...