Nil by Mouth 1998

In a working-class corner of South East London, Raymond Ray Winstone and his wife Valerie Kathy Burke raise their little daughter Michelle, surrounded by a bustling extended family that includes Raymond’s brother-in-law Billy, his mother-in-law Janet, and grandmother-in-law Kathy. The household is lively but tense, held together by a fragile balance that often teeters into conflict. Billy is caught in the grip of heroin, moving in circles with other drug-using friends, and his presence casts a long shadow over the already volatile home life. The family’s dynamics are defined by Raymond’s quick temper and sudden, explosive outbursts, a temper that strains every conversation, every shared meal, every attempt at normalcy.

When Valerie becomes pregnant again, she continues to smoke and drink, signaling trouble ahead. One night they score drugs, and Billy uses Ray’s cocaine, pushing the already frayed line of trust past its limit. Ray’s fury erupts in a brutal moment where he bites Billy’s nose and throws him out of the flat. But the conflict doesn’t end there—Billy returns, breaks back in, and steals a family heirloom to fund his escalating habit, underscoring how addiction has begun to hollow out the family’s sense of security and memory.

Valerie seeks a night away from the mounting strain, and Ray’s jealousy spikes when he sees an attractive male friend of hers in a pub. The situation spirals: he forces her out of the pub and into the car, and at home he accuses her of infidelity, culminating in a vicious assault that causes a miscarriage. The aftermath leaves Valerie reeling and determined to leave him, while Ray tries to win her back. Yet she makes it clear that there is nothing left to return to—no home to go back to, since he has already torn it apart—before she resolves to seek a life with someone who will love and treat her with kindness. In a moment of painful honesty, she envisions a future in which turning 70 would be a chance to remember the past not with sorrow but with some fond memories of a freer, happier time.

Ray’s attempts at reconciliation are tempered by the weight of his history. He visits Valerie, asking whether she still loves him, a question that hangs in the air as their relationship drifts between possibility and grievance. Despite the mounting evidence of their broken bond, circumstances pull them back toward one another. They finally reunite, and Ray manages to repair the flat, forging a new sense of stability even as his crude manner and past volatility linger just beneath the surface.

The family’s trials extend beyond the couple to Billy and his circle. Billy and his friend Danny rob a man to support their drug habit, a crime that lands them in prison and serves as a grim reminder of the consequences that addiction brings to everyone around them. Yet this prison sentence becomes a peculiar, painful form of closure: it helps rebind the family together, rekindling a sense of unity amid the wreckage. In the end, they all come together to visit Billy, seeking to reclaim some sense of family solidarity even as the scars of violence, betrayal, and dependence remain a constant undercurrent.