Trust Me (2017)

2017 | UK | Dan Sefton | ★★★

Driven by the mesmerising central performance of the ever-wonderful Jodie Whittaker, but hampered by an almost fatal lack of credibility, Dan Sefton's four-part medical drama with a twist, Trust Me, proves itself ridiculous but entertaining.

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"Driven to desperate measures, nurse Cath Hardacre (Jodie Whittaker, Doctor Who, Broadchurch) steals the identity of her best friend, an A&E doctor and finds work in a struggling emergency department. It’s not long before she starts to enjoy the trappings that come with her new job and Cath soon finds herself falling for a fellow doctor. With her dream job and the perfect man, she buries herself in her imposter persona, until her old life threatens to shatter her new existence and she’s forced to go to increasingly desperate methods to cover up her lies. Will her lack of skills have deadly consequences? How can she be in a relationship when she can’t be herself? How can she keep hold of the perfect life when she is living a lie?" Studiocanal

Queers. (2017)

2017 | UK | Mark Gatiss | ★★★★

Screened as part of the BBC's Gay Britannia season, Mark Gatiss's witty and upbeat though never romanticised Queers. is a series of eight pub-set, decades-spanning monologues, starring and written by an array of well-corralled British talent.

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"Curated and directed by Mark Gatiss, Queers sees eight new and established writers respond to the 50th anniversary of The Sexual Offences Act which partially decriminalised homosexual acts between men. Taking in 1957's Wolfenden Report, the HIV crisis and the 1967 Sexual Offence Act itself, the monologues will explore some of the most poignant, funny, tragic and riotous moments of British gay history and the very personal rites-of-passage of British gay men through the last one hundred years." BBC

See also:

Gay Britannia (2017)

Kevin Turvey: The Man Behind the Green Door (1982)

1982 | UK | Rik Mayall & Colin Gilbert | ★★★★

Rik Mayall & Colin Gilbert's plotless, episodic Kevin Turvey is an unaccountably hilarious faux documentary, featuring wonderfully stupid characters, the unlikeliest of gags, and a star-making central performance from Mayall, himself.

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"A week in the life of Rik Mayall's fearless and clueless investigative reporter, Kevin Turvey, as he breaks open the non-events of Redditch." BBC

Clique (2017)

2017 | UK | Jess Brittain | ★★★★

Jess Brittain's stylish and well-acted Clique is an unpredictable, twisty-turny six-part thriller set in the twinned worlds of academia and finance, featuring lush visuals, labyrinthine plotting, and a raft of beautiful people doing ugly things.

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"Childhood soulmates Holly and Georgia are in their first term at university in Edinburgh. But when impressionable Georgia is drawn to an elite clique of young women, Holly is sceptical, sensing a more sinister bond between the girls than friendship." BBC

Laxdale Hall (1953)

1953 | UK | John Eldridge | ★★★★

John Eldridge's Laxdale Hall is a decidedly gentle yet hilariously irreverent Ealingesque David-vs-Goliath comedy based on Eric Linklater's 1951 novel, featuring amiable performances, attractive location photography, and memorable comic set-pieces.

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"The few residents of Laxdale who own cars are refusing to pay their road fund licence because of the poor state of the only road which links them to the rest of Scotland. A parliamentary delegation is dispatched to the Scottish Highlands to quell the rebellion!" Panamint Cinema

Aberdeen (2000)

2000 | Norway | Hans Petter Moland | ★★★★

Norwegian film-maker Hans Petter Moland's bold and unflinching Aberdeen is a scabrously powerful drama of addiction and reconciliation, featuring a pair of very powerful and moving performances from Lena Headey and Stellan Skarsgård.

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"Kaisa is a Scot, a successful London lawyer, who snorts coke and has one-night stands with strangers. Her mother calls from Aberdeen with some story begging her to fly to Norway and collect her alcoholic dad whom she hasn't seen in years. The impatient Kaisa reluctantly agrees. The story is a ruse: mom is dying and wants her ex and her daughter together again. The trip gets complicated (dad is too drunk to fly and the hot-tempered Kaisa gets them banned from the airline): they go by ferry then car, needing a great deal of help along the way from a sweet lorry driver named Clive. Will they reach Aberdeen before mom's death, and will Kaisa find any stability within herself or in others?" IMDb

See also: 

Stotty's Norwegian Favourites

Sunshine on Leith (2013)

2013 | UK | Dexter Fletcher | ★★★★

Based on Stephen Greenhorn's 2007 stage musical, Dexter Fletcher's Sunshine on Leith is a hugely likeable Scottish feature, packed with enough charismatic performances and memorably belted out Proclaimers songs to look past its somewhat trite plotting.

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"Dexter Fletcher directs this cinematic adaptation of the acclaimed stage musical featuring the music of Scottish band The Proclaimers. Returning home from their most recent stint in Afghanistan, Davy (George MacKay) and Ally (Kevin Guthrie) have a new appreciation for life after witnessing the horrors of war first-hand. While Ally plans his proposal to Davy's sister Liz (Freya Mavor), Davy falls for Yvonne (Antonia Thomas) and the two couples come together in time for Liz's parent's wedding anniversary, but not everything is plain sailing for love in Leith..." Eiv