Secrets & Lies is a 1996 British drama film written and directed by
Mike Leigh. Led by an
ensemble cast consisting of many Leigh regulars, it stars
Marianne Jean-Baptiste as Hortense, a well-educated black middle-class London optometrist, who was adopted as a baby and has chosen to trace her family history – only to discover that her birth mother, Cynthia, played by
Brenda Blethyn, is a working-class white woman with a dysfunctional family.
Claire Rushbrook co-stars as Cynthia's other daughter Roxanne, while
Timothy Spall and
Phyllis Logan portray Cynthia's brother and sister-in-law, who have secrets of their own affecting their everyday family life.