A film of non-linear story-telling as pensioner Joan (Judi Dench) remembers her time at Cambridge, its communist circles that drew her in and what followed. Could this unassuming old lady have been a spy sending classified information to the Soviet Union? Red Joan wonderfully realises 1930s Cambridge and Britain at war, while Sophie Cookson’s shy, resilient young Joan takes full advantage of men’s commonplace view of women at the time. Yet it’s Dench’s deft performance as a doddery innocent that steals the limelight.

Red Joan‘s script is adapted from a novel of the same name by Jennie Rooney, inspired by the true story of Melita Norwood.

‘A good old-fashioned British spy thriller in the scientific mold of Enigma, with a bewitching female heroine (or anti-heroine, if you will) played by the excellent actresses Judi Dench and (as her younger self) Sophie Cookson.’ Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter.