Vera Drake: A rough diamond. With a heart of gold.

A recent BBC documentary focused on a study conducted by a team of young anthropologists into the sexual practices of the British public in the late 1940s. Dubbed Little Kinsey, after the famous American study on American men, and including both sexes, the findings from the 3000 people interviewed were startling enough to officialdom, that the publication of the report was suppressed and the file buried in Sussex University's archives. One-in-four men had slept with a prostitute? One-in-five women had had an extra-marital affair? One-in-three pregnancies were conceived before wedlock? Was this the same country that had coined the phrase "No sex please, we're British"?

Though the research standards of the British paper can presumably be discredited in much the same manner as its American counterpart has been, the findings are substantial enough to disprove the popular myths of sexual innocence in the pre-swinging-sixties.

I have a friend... She needs some help

Vera Drake flits through the approach of winter like a robin bringing a dash of colour to the bleak lives of those in her neighbourhood. This is a London landscape of mashed potato, the changing of the bedpan, steam from a thousand kettles.

Director Mike Leigh choreographs the comings and goings of the close-knit Drake family with the warmth and dedication that has characterized all of his work to date. Normality is almost balletic. Everyday snippets of speech slot together like notes in a musical score, natural cadences of the postwar humdrum routines. A trip to an Ealing comedy. A night down the dance-hall.

A pub with no background music. It's the glorious stuff of nostalgia.

Oh, Stanley! You're feet!

Loving wife and mother, Vera holds down several jobs as cleaner and laundry attendant. But it's not just sheets and brass she removes stains and blemishes from.

"I'm here to help you, aren't I? And that's what I'm going to do."

Equipped with soap, disinfectant, a rubber syringe and a cheese-grater, Vera pays visits to those girls in the neighbourhood who have "got themselves in the family way".

I set her mind at rest.

Never moralizing, never questioning, her approach to abortion is neither to condone nor to condemn. Someone's in need on help, and she has the means to facilitate. Leigh steers clear from casting any moral aspersions on the issue. Even the soprano choir and harp pieces that accompany the "operations" sow ambiguity, halfway between showing Vera as a guardian angel, halfway giving a spiritual note to the terminations.

That was a lovely spread, Vera. Thank you very much.

As is often the case with Leigh's work, contrast is an important convention here. And as usual, here it takes the form of class observations. A young woman from an upper middle class background has all the money and means to afford the medical procedure, but lacks any support from her family or community. Vera's warmth is set off against the cold questioning of the Harley Street professionals the girl visits. Closer to home, Vera's middle-class sister-in-law, selfish and uncaring, is trying to become pregnant. These lives are never really fleshed out. Leigh doesn't allow these stories to go anywhere. They remain half told, their function to provide commentary on a society of haves and have-nots. Leigh's focus is elsewhere. His angel Vera. And as is often the case, an angel can fall to Earth.

I know why you're here. It's because of what I do.

Imelda Staunton gives a howlingly good performance in the title-role. Rarely in cinema are roles created that allow such a full a characterization to emerge, and such a wide range of emotional flair to be exhibited. So far, Staunton has picked up 17 Best Actress awards at ceremonies far and wide. Working, as always, without a screenplay (which still received a Screenplay nomination at the Oscars this year), Leigh has again forged a gem of a piece together with the cast and all on board. And most give very rounded performances.

This is one of Mike Leigh's best to date. A diamond with a heart of gold. A film that won't fail to engage on many a level.

What you need now is a nice hot cup of tea.

Vera Drake is showing at Salon Cinema until Oct 28. Click here for showtimes. Kinsey, starring Liam Neeson, is on general release.

Win free tickets to see Vera Drake Click here for more details.