Starring
Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson

Golden Globe winner Sally Hawkins stars as Rita O'Grady who is the catalyst for the 1968 Ford Dagenham strike by 187 sewing machinists which led to the advent of the Equal Pay Act.

Working in extremely impoverished conditions for long arduous hours which they must balance with their domestic lives, the women at the Ford Dagenham plant finally lose their patience when they are reclassified as 'unskilled'. With humour, common sense and courage they take on their corporate paymasters, an increasingly belligerent local community and finally the government itself.

The leader of the women's struggle is fast-talking, no nonsense Rita whose fiery temper and occasionally hilarious unpredictability proves to be a match for any of her male opponents, and is echoed by Barbara Castle's (Miranda Richardson) struggle in the male-dominated House of Commons.

The soundtrack brings the Sixties back with Traffic, Small Faces, Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs and Desmond Dekker.

Directed by
Nigel Cole