Lesley Manville is clearly having some good fun playing the eponymous, widowed, wartime cleaner. One of her clients, "Lady Dant" (Anna Chancellor) is not so hot when it comes to settling her bills, but she does have a Dior dress - and at £500 this is a dream for "Mrs. Harris". Determined to have one for herself, she works extra hard, saves her pension - even has a flutter on the dogs before arriviver mais...

I don’t know if I would have been quite so anxious to see this movie, or if I would have liked it as much, if Lesley Manville was not playing Mrs. Harris, but fortunately she was. An unlikely confluence of events happen to and around Mrs. Harris that seem to add up to an unlikely scenario of her saving money to buy the Dior dress, such as her winning the football pools (lottery). But science fiver mais...