On a warm spring day in 1924, the young housemaid Jane Fairchild (Australian rising star Odessa Young) finds herself alone. Her employers, the Nivens (Colin Firth and Olivia Colman) - one of several local ‘grand’ families who have been devastated by the loss of sons in the First World War - are out and she has the rare chance to spend time with her secret lover, Paul (Josh O’Connor, The Crown), the sole surviving son from a neighbouring manor house. However, Paul is engaged to be married to someone else.
More than a decade later, Jane has become a writer and is living with another man in London, struggling to make sense of an idea for a novel that keeps urging her to look to the past.
In this beautiful adaptation of Graham Swift’s 2016 novella, screenwriter Alice Birch (Normal People, Lady Macbeth) and director Eva Husson (Bang Gang, Girls of the Sun) bring the rich sensuality of this extraordinary love story to the screen.
An intimate period drama exploring a creative awakening steeped in books, love and loss, Mothering Sunday’s terrific extended cast make this a must-see.
