Carole White, who’d appeared in both Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home, gives a committed performance as Joy, a young woman who has to deal with the consequences of the bad choices she has made. Left alone to bring up her young son while her husband is in prison, she falls for a handsome thief, played by a brooding Terrence Stamp.

Loach’s source for his first cinema feature was another novel by Nell Dunn, and it is both convincing and sympathetic in depicting a resilient character trapped by her class and gender.

This film is screening as part of Ken Loach (Part One), May 3rd – 28th. Loach’s latest film, Jimmy’s Hall, opens at the IFI on May 30th.