High Hopes

Cyril (Phil Davis) and Shirley (Ruth Sheen) live together in King's Cross, and she wants a child while he isn't sure the world is worth bringing one into. The questions pile up around them: yuppies moving into the street and pushing prices up, and the seventieth birthday of Cyril's ageing mother (Edna Doré). Mike Leigh builds the film from improvised rehearsals with his cast, so the family's quarrels sound like people who have had them before.