Sally Hawkins,who won virtually universal acclaim in Happy-Go-Lucky, is now set to star in We Want Sex, an apparently light-hearted look at the women's rights movement and the campaign for equal pay.
The film is based on real events at the Dagenham Ford factory in 1968, where 850 female workers walked out in protest at sexual discrimination in their job performance evaluations and went on strike, campaigning for equal pay for equal work. The strike committee were invited to tea by Labour Employment Secretary Barbara Castle (not to be confused with Barbara Windsor, ever) and it was in that meeting that the protestors raised the issue of equal pay for the first time. Imelda Staunton is in talks to play Castle.
The title refers to a banner used by the protestors, which was supposed to read "We Want Sex Equality" but somehow lost the last word.
British producer and (mostly) TV director Simon Curtis is directing, from a script by Billy Ivory. Pre-production starts in March, with shooting due to begin in June. Producer Stephen Wooley says the film is "funny and easy to relate to", and "in the vein of Billy Elliot and Calendar Girls". It's worth noting that Billy Elliot, while funny in parts, didn't make light of the miners' strike itself; let's hope the filmmakers this time are similarly careful not make cheap jokes about a issue that's still a real problem.