Debbie Honeywood

In Sorry We Missed You (2019), Debbie Honeywood makes Abby’s exhaustion apparent without letting it account for everything she does. She plays a carer and mother, and allows the anger to come through without making tenderness seem like a change of character. It is a fine performance, especially when Ken Loach’s film begins to press its point too hard. Honeywood gives us someone to care about when the writing risks making the family’s suffering feel arranged.

Abby Turner was her first substantial film role. The work since includes Veronica in the television drama Responsible Child (2019) and Tania, a hairdresser, in The Old Oak (2023). The latter returned her to Loach and writer Paul Laverty, though in a smaller part. We would not make claims for a whole career on the strength of one leading performance. It is enough to say that Abby gives us a clear reason to pay attention to what Honeywood does next.

Her naturalistic delivery is useful to Loach, but it is not the whole achievement. Alongside Rhys Mcgowan as Seb and Katie Proctor as Liza Jane, she helps make family life feel awkward and affectionate rather than cosy. We were moved by those scenes because Honeywood makes Abby’s tenderness credible despite her exhaustion. The irritation matters too: she need not be endlessly patient for us to understand why this family is worth worrying about when work starts to crowd everything else out.

There is a limit to what even this performance can repair. The accumulated setbacks in Sorry We Missed You sometimes feel arranged, and Honeywood’s conviction does not make that reservation disappear. But the affection she establishes gives the pressure of work consequences we care about; we worry about what this family stands to lose. Start there for Honeywood, with the caveat that the writing occasionally labours its point.