Shirley Valentine, as played by the late great Pauline Collins is a 1980s Liverpool housewife with an ungrateful family, a cracked kitchen wall and to-camera monologues so sharp they could slice a frozen Viennetta. This 1989 comedy is powered by sassy northern women who shouldn't have to suffer the sheer indignity of making chips for someone who doesn’t deserve them and have so much more to give to the world beyond the 4 walls of their terraced house. The film adaptation of Willy Russell's popular stage comedy sees the amazing cast including Alison Steadman, Bernard Hill, Tom Conti and Collins herself deliver immortal lines that have lived rent-free in our minds for decades and have especially hit home with women and gay men - equal parts defiant, wistful and gloriously mouthy. As Shirley runs away to Greece and has a filng with a Greek waiter she finds herself and her worth and that's something that strikes a chord with anyone who ever dreamed of running away and becoming a better version of yourself - preferably somewhere sunnier, or as Shirley would say  "drink a glass of wine in a country where the grape's grown"..

And then there’s Joanna Lumley, floating in like a perfectly coiffed fever dream as Shirley's old school friend Marjorie: pure camp, pure confidence, a girl who grew up and really made it as...a high class hooker! It’s no accident this film is beloved by gay audiences - strong funny, women, hilarious lines, having sex with strangers in Greece! - it’s all there, wrapped in big earrings and even bigger feelings. Shirley Valentine is a camp classic not because it’s outrageous, but because it’s unapologetically itself. 

What other British films belong in the camp canon alongside this — Educating Rita, Abigail’s Party something even messier? We'd love to hear your suggestions! 

This film will be introduced by Gary James Williams Make A Scene curator and lead programmer for SCENE: Manchester LGBTQ+ Film & TV Festival

All our screenings are 18+

The film will begin at the advertised time above.