As a lifelong stickler for the correct dating of films this film is rather irksome, since although scheduled to be screened at the 1986 London Film Festival (and bearing that date in the credits) it didn't actually hit cinemas until early the next year due an injunction brought by Mary Whitehouse, which guaranteed it plenty of free publicity and ensured that it will always be dated 1987 in the reference books.

If it weren't for the portrait of Charles & Diana adorning one of the walls you'd take this film for one set in the fifties. Cynthia Payne's madam is described as "Catering strictly for the tastes of the older gentlemen", and one of several poignant moment is the Christmas party, which makes you realise how lonely and pathetic her clientele must really be.

Julie Walters is of course terrific, but Shirley Stelfox also deserves honourable mention as her business partner who goes about her business with an air of bored amusement. It ends with a wonderful sight gag, which may or not be in Miss Payne's imagination.

Julie Walters is great in this story of a woman who starts off life working in a café but ends up being arrested for living off the immoral earnings made running a brothel for the great and the good. It's loosely based on the rise and fall of the renowned madam Cynthia Payne (who consulted on the drama) and reaches inside the murky sex industry, laying bare peccadilloes galore as we discover a wide variety of kinks that keep all ranges of society entertained and/or employed. "Christine" is a shrewd business woman whom aided by her stalwart "Dolly" (Danny Schiller); "Shirley" (Shirley Stelfox) and the RAF veteran Wing Commander - in panties and a bra - "Morten" (Alec McCowen) is making quite a go of her elicit enterprise. The police pop up now and again, but for the most part Terry Jones left me with thinking that this is actually quite an empowering drama. Certainly some of the women taking part do so out of necessity - and perhaps that is rather underplayed here - but we are also presented with the inescapable fact that human beings are all different and that the Victorian-era proscription of sex, and of sexual practices between consenting adults is long outdated and certainly no business of the state or their agencies. David Leland has written a script that is peppered with realism, sarcasm and proves ideal for the on-form Walters and her well targeted delivery. It does meander around familial discord a bit, which I didn't need - but the last few scenes speak (or should that be spank) volumes about the hypocrisy and double-standards that prevail in a society that should enjoy sex and keep it's nose where it belongs... It's good fun and thought-provoking in equal measure, and well worth a watch.