Tamara Drewe (2010)

Skilfully directed by Stephen Frears, this is a comedy-drama adapted from the comic strip by Posy Simmonds, which itself was loosely based on Thomas Hardy’s novel The Mayor of Casterbridge. 

Once an “ugly duckling” and now a much-desired beauty, Tamara returns to the small Dorset village of Ewedown and causes havoc of various kinds, with three different men all in love (or lust) with her. 

It’s funny, but it’s also brilliantly plotted as a drama. All of the characters are three-dimensional and believable. Best of all is Tamsin Greig as Beth Hardiment, the long-suffering wife of the lying, cheating author Nicholas (Roger Allam). 

In visual terms it uncannily evokes the comic strip. 

There’s also a refreshing moral ambiguity. I don’t think we’re even supposed to like the main character.

Their Finest (2016)

Comedy drama.

A writer named Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) is hired by the Ministry of Information in 1940 to help create propaganda films during World War II. She faces sexism and other setbacks, has to deal with the ego of star actor Ambrose Hilliard (Bill Nighy), and develops an up-and-down creative relationship with her co-writer Tom Buckley (Sam Claflin). 

It’s subtle and witty, with the film-within-a-film aspect working extremely well. Initially it has the feel of a “Sunday night TV drama”, but it acquires depth as it develops. Arterton is excellent, conveying an emotional range that you might not expect after seeing her brief appearance as MI6 agent Strawberry Fields in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace.