Sheridan’s first collaboration with scriptwriter Terry George was on his second film about the Troubles, Some Mother’s Son. It was produced by Sheridan through his production company Hell’s Kitchen. A young Aiden Gillen plays the Christ-like hunger striker Gerard Quigley, but even more than in any of Sheridan’s preceding works, the focus of this film is on the suffering Irish mother. Two more strong performances see Helen Mirren and Fionnula Flanagan thrown together when their sons are interned in H-Block and discovering that they have more in common than they might have suspected. It is this relationship that carries the film, erupting in moments of unexpected humour as Mirren teaches Flanagan how to drive a car. This trait – of balancing tragedy with sentimentality and then segueing into laughter – had by now become a Sheridan trademark, allowing him to leaven political analysis with pure entertainment.