Best film of 2020, Lynn + Lucy, BBC iPlayer, written and directed by Fyzal Boulifa.

Lynn + Lucy (Roxanne Scrimshaw + Nichola Burley) wasn’t the kind of film I usually watch. It seemed like Brookside transported to Harlow, Essex. Yeh, I’m snobby that way. ‘You alright? Yeh, I’m alright. You alright?’

Lynn + Lucy went to school together, best mates, forever. Lynn has been married to Paul (Shaq B Grant) for ten years and they have a daughter Lola (Tia Nelson). They got married when she was sixteen and pregnant. He’s off sick from his job in the army and scouring the internet for talent. Lynn isn’t worth looking at. She gets a low-level job in the hairdresser making tea and sweeping up after customers. The owner of the boutique, Janelle (Jennifer Lee Moon) is the kind of snotty cow both girls laughed at school.

Lucy is the glamour puss with blue hair and a younger boyfriend, Clark (Samson Cox-Vinell). Their house is across the road from Lynn’s, and she trudges across to help with their fractious new-born kid, because, for once, she’s had experience of that sort of thing. Lynn’s doing the talking and Lucy is doing the listening, but that’s what her plain-looking friend is there for, helping out.

Paul isn’t particularly happy when Lucy goes for a girlie night out with Lynn. It’ll be like old times is the cry. But Clark doesn’t know about it and has to be told and persuaded that Lucy is going out. She deserved her little break, like everybody else.

Lucy is back in her element, on the town and winding up the boys they used to go to school with that they used to be a pair of lesbians because they were so close. Even snogging one of the boys for a laugh to show that she’s still got it. Lynn is by her side, going along for the ride.

The classic set-up for what happens next. An ambulance takes away Lucy’s baby. Everything falls apart. Lynn begins to pick up the pieces. For the first time in her life, she’s taking the lead. She’s in the limelight. The question emerges of how well we can really know each other? It takes precedence over all others. The glue that binds them is ripped apart. Who will fling the first stone in the witch hunt?

‘You alright? Yeh, I’m alright. You alright?’

Think again.