Mike Leigh wrote and directed this class struggle comedy drama, set during the Thatcher years. Starring David Bamber, Phil Davis and Leslie Manville. Mike Leigh\'s contemporary film classic is a comedy drama which portrays the intertwined lives of an extended working class family in London during the Thatcher years. The story follows left-wing bike messenger Cyril Bender, his girlfriend Shirley and Cyril\'s conservative mother, who lives in the last council house on her street next to the appallingly upper class Boothe-Braines. Cyril\'s consumerist sister Valerie and her car salesman husband Martin join the family to throw a surprise 70th birthday party for Mrs. Bender but, despite their best intentions – and in true Mike Leigh style – the event doesn\'t turn out quite as planned…