Margery and Gladys 2003

Margery Heywood, Penelope Keith and her cleaning woman Gladys Gladwell, June Brown, disturb a would-be burglar breaking into Margery’s house in Kent. Margery attacks the intruder with a heavy glass vase and knocks him unconscious, but fear grips her when she believes she has killed him. She panics, flees the house with Gladys, and leaves behind her handbag, setting off a chain of impulsive decisions that pull them into a farcical but tense escape.

In Gladys’s car, the pair decide to reach Margery’s son Graham Heywood, Adam Godley in Milton Keynes, hoping he will shelter them and lend money. The plan quickly spirals into a comedy of disasters as missteps, bad luck, and stubborn stubbornness complicate every turn. The road trip becomes a landscape of near-misses and ridiculous scrapes rather than a simple dash for safety.

They are forced to break into a pharmacy to obtain insulin for Gladys’s diabetes, do a runner from a petrol station, and dodge police cameras on the M25. The tension tightens as the two women grapple with fear, dependence, and the dawning realization that their flight is exposing vulnerabilities neither anticipated. The journey binds them in awkward solidarity even as external pressures push them toward broader consequences.

Margery is devastated to learn of a twenty-year affair between her late husband, Troy Gladwell, and Gladys, and that her son knew of it. The revelation fractures Margery’s sense of trust and illuminates the complex loyalties that have quietly shaped their lives. Her husband also secretly bought a boat and planned to sail away with a childhood friend, a notion that adds another layer of secrecy to the unfolding drama.

With the police, led by about-to-retire Detective Inspector Woolley, Roger Lloyd-Pack on their trail, the two women push toward Fleetwood, only to meet the childhood friend and confront the uneasy truth that the past can surface in the most unexpected places. The boat, it seems, was purchased with stolen money, casting a shadow over the couple’s getaway and raising the stakes for what comes next. After a night on the town at nearby Blackpool, the two decide to take the boat and sail off to the Caribbean, turning a perilous escape into a bold, if reckless, new chapter.

Throughout this escapade, the film threads together moments of humor with glimpses of vulnerability, painting a portrait of two women who, despite their differences, form a reluctant alliance against a backdrop of secrets, fraught family ties, and a chase that refuses to end neatly. The finale leaves them steering toward an uncertain horizon, a test of resilience and the possibility of a future that might still be theirs to shape.