© 2026 The Couch Critic
Status
Released
Release
1996
Runtime
2h 22m
Available options inUS
"Roxanne drives her mother crazy. Maurice never speaks to his niece. Cynthia has a shock for her family. Monica can't talk to her husband. Hortense has never met her mother."
After her adoptive mother dies, Hortense, a successful black optometrist, seeks out her birth mother. She's shocked when her research leads her to Cynthia, a working class white woman.
56 Cast Members
Brenda Blethyn
Cynthia Rose Purley
Marianne Jean-Baptiste
Hortense Cumberbatch
Timothy Spall
Maurice Purley
Phyllis Logan
Monica Purley
Claire Rushbrook
Roxanne Purley
Lee Ross
Paul
Lesley Manville
The Social Worker
Elizabeth Berrington
Jane
Michele Austin
Dionne
Ron Cook
Stuart
Trevor Laird
Hortense's Brother
Brian Bovell
Hortense's Brother
Emma Amos
Girl with Scar
Clare Perkins
Hortense's Sister in Law
Elias Perkins McCook
Hortense's Nephew
Jane Mitchell
Senior Optician (as June Mitchell)
Janice Acquah
Junior Optician
Keylee Jade Flanders
Girl in Opticians (as Keeley Flanders)
Hannah Davis
First Bride
Terence Harvey
First Bride's Father
