The film stars the award winning Sally Hawkins as Rita O'Grady who is the catalyst for the 1968 Ford Dagenham strike by 187 sewing machinists which led to the advent of the Equal Pay Act.  Working in extremely impoverished conditions for long arduous hours which they must balance with their domestic lives, the women at the Ford Dagenham plant finally lose their patience when they are reclassified as "unskilled".  With humour, common sense and courage they take on their corporate paymasters, an increasingly belligerent local community, and finally the government itself.  The leader of the women's struggle is fast-talking, no nonsense Rita whose fiery temper and occasionally hilarious unpredictability proves to be a match for any of her male opponents, and is echoed by Barbara Castle's struggle in the male-dominated House of Commons.

MAKING THE FILM
"The idea for Made in Dagenham came out of a programme I'd heard on Radio 4 called The Reunion," explains producer Stephen Woolley. "The format of the show is to get together a group of people that had been involved in something special in the past.  These women were on, talking about the strike of 1968. They had worked in appalling conditions in this factory. But, because they were a very small percentage of the workforce, Ford kept ignoring their requests. Until they finally decided to fight back. I was fascinated by their story, and what struck me in particular was how innocent and unpoliticised they were. All they wanted was a fair deal. It was common sense rather than any kind of axe to grind."
Along with his Number 9 Films producing partner Elizabeth Karlsen, Woolley travelled to Dagenham to meet the women. "They were great," he grins, "really funny. But it became very obvious after talking to them that it would be impossible to take just one of their stories. Had we focused on just one of the women - her story, her husband, her kids - then it would have been an invasion of her privacy. Anyway, we're making a film, not a documentary. So we created a character that represents a cross-section of two or three of the women, rather than one in particular. That's how we came up with Rita. She may be a fictionalised amalgam of several real people but we have kept true to the events. The strike did take place in this way and the women did meet Barbara Castle on that day. It's such an inspiring story."
With such strong source material, Woolley and Karlsen needed a writer that could capture the spirit of these indomitable women.
"We approached several different writers but decided to go with Billy Ivory who, up to now, has solely written television programmes," explains Karlsen. "Then we worked steadily with him developing the script."
The next step was hiring Calendar Girls director Nigel Cole. "Nigel had actually grown up near Dagenham around the time of the strike," says Woolley, "so he knew the people and what the characters would be like. Also, we knew that he could direct a brilliant ensemble cast, as he had in Calendar Girls."
Meanwhile, Nigel Cole fell in love with the script as soon as he read it. "I knew immediately it was my kind of film," he smiles. "It has the right mix of humour, comedy and drama that I always look for. I don't really do straight comedy because I like to have some meat and content to my films. And I don't do bleak, dark drama either: I'm too flippant. So I like a mixture of warmth and comedy and strong drama and this is exactly that. And, for reasons I can never quite fathom, I'm more interested in women's stories than men's."
Cole is able to see some parallels between Made in Dagenham and his 2003 hit Calendar Girls. "It's that idea of ordinary women getting caught up in something much bigger than them," he explains. "Then they're able to grow as characters and learn to deal with events that are way outside their normal scope and terms of reference. Also, tonally, it's similar. But these are very different women to Calendar Girls: very different characters and very different story."
When it came to finding a location, the most important thing was the factory.
"The factory is the backbone of the film," explains Karlsen. "The buildings at Dagenham have all gone, so we found this old Hoover factory in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales. It was perfect for the shoot because it's no longer a working factory. It used to employ five thousand people but, sadly, they have been closing it down over the past few months."
The affect on the local community in Wales has parallels with the struggle in the film.
"The heart of Merthyr has been ripped out," agrees Cole. "Thousands of workers are now unemployed, which got us all fired up politically, and reinforced the idea that this is an important story to tell. Filming in the factory was really helpful because everyone could feel what it would really be like to work in a place like this. We tried to employ as many local people as possible, and have about 50 local women playing striking women in the film. They also came to London for those scenes and really enjoyed it."
Sally Hawkins, who plays Rita, went to the site of the old factory in Dagenham as part of her research.
"It's really sad, like an old ghost town," she says. "But it's so interesting because that area is steeped in history. People flocked to Dagenham in the 1960s because of Ford. The factory created thousands of jobs. I like doing research so I wanted to meet the women, especially as the story and my character are so rooted in reality. The women were really lovely, and Billy Ivory's screenplay jumps off the page because he really captured their voices. To play Rita, I had to put myself in their way of thinking. It made me realise how lucky, as women, we are now. Women today have so many opportunities that these women certainly didn't."
For Hawkins, the 40-day shoot was a lot of fun. "I made some really good friends on this film," she smiles. "That sense of female camaraderie and friendship is pretty rare on a film set and, on this one, it's so important. The women of the factory looked out for each other because they loved each other, and we tried to foster that relationship on set too. The other actresses are a bunch of lovely, brilliant women, who really embodied the parts and made them real. I have never laughed so much on set. And the men were great too: Danny Mays, who plays my husband, is really lovely and passionate about what he does. And Nigel Cole is just gorgeous: brilliant and funny. He was so willing to keep exploring and pushing us all. I was happy to have him steering the ship because you need to have complete trust in the people you're working with and I had that on this set."
Andrea Riseborough, who plays Brenda, nods in agreement: "Making the film was one of the most joyful and unique experiences I've had on set," she says. "This is the third movie Sally and I have made together and it is a joy to work with her always. The other women I hadn't worked with previously but very quickly we developed a close bond and all found ourselves becoming an extension of our characters behind the camera as the film progressed. Nigel Cole has a way of making each cast member, from principal to supporting artist, feel that their role is ultimately essential and that what we are making is vital and worthy. The opportunity of working with him is not something any actor should pass up. The feeling on set was one of purpose. We all felt that the story we were telling needed to be told and we were all going to do it as well as we bloody could."
For Riseborough, the opportunity to research the women of Dagenham and the history of the factory was invaluable.
"There are hours of archive footage from which to draw reference about the women, speaking both about their struggle at the time, and after the fact, all of which gives you an insight into not only their history but a clear picture of their physicality, speech and extraordinary nuances," she explains. "We visited en masse, and filmed in the estate in which they would have lived and had lessons in how to operate the heavy-duty machinery with which they sewed the car interiors. It was a fascinating and really valuable experience. The work was hard and long and the women were at odds with their archaic, crumbling surroundings in the worst factory building on the plant."
Rosamund Pike, who plays Lisa, the wife of the factory boss, agrees that this is powerful story, which will undoubtedly tug at the heartstrings. "The film will be very, very moving," she says. "Sally is absolutely brilliant as Rita. You're watching a woman pushed to her extremes. It's about a woman stepping outside her own box and exploring the limits of her fortitude, strength, courage and intellectual ability. She rises magnificently to the challenge, but not without some pain."
Pike felt very comfortable on set, having worked with several of the cast and crew before. "The atmosphere was very familiar because a lot of the crew had been on An Education or Pride & Prejudice," she explains. "It was like a family; a community. And Nigel is very supportive and committed. He knows what actors need and he takes the time to work things out. He likes things being a bit smudgy and real and I like that a lot. Also, he's very good with women. He understood that this was a film about women and the fight for equality, which is why my character is very important because she's middle class, so it shows the unity between women of different classes. He was keen that it wasn't just a working class struggle film."
For Jaime Winstone, who plays budding model Sandra, working in real locations, rather than studio sets, made all the difference. "The locations we filmed in really gave us a sense of what it was like to be these women," she explains. "From the terrible conditions in the disused factory to the excitement of going to the Houses of Parliament. We could really feel the spirit of these women. We all adopted the accent and joked that we were like a right bunch of Fag Ash Lils."
The film's male cast were equally excited about their time on set. "The gift that Nigel has is his ability to make everybody feel as important as each other," explains Daniel Mays, who plays Rita's husband Eddie. "He's just completely and utterly passionate about making a really brilliant film. When you work closely with someone like that, it's infectious. The story is so inspiring: it's the original Girl Power! And amazing to have such fantastic parts written for these brilliant female actresses. They had a real energy about them. They really clicked as a group and that will come through in the final product. But I was also in good company with the male actors: Bob Hoskins, Roger Lloyd Pack and Kenneth Cranham are legends, national institutions. So to have the opportunity to work with them is fantastic."
For Bob Hoskins, one of the most fun parts of the shoot was working with the real factory workers in Wales. "It was wonderful being one of only very few men on set," he laughs. "When we filmed in the disused factory in Wales, the extras were real girls from the factory and they made such a fuss of me. They used to pinch my bum! These were women that had been made redundant from their factory jobs, so it was great that they could be a part of the film."

THE CAST > "When a script is so well written, you know that you're going to get very good actors attracted to it," says Rosamund Pike of the reason she wanted to make the film. "Sally Hawkins, Miranda Richardson, Danny Mays, Andrea Riseborough, Bob Hoskins… the cast on this is just amazing."  Read more

THE STYLE >"Elizabeth Karlsen, my producing partner, and I were very, very keen on making the look of the film bright and summery, rather than going for a dour monotone look," explains Stephen Woolley. "We wanted to reflect the nature of these women. So, in terms of costume design, set design and lighting, we alongside Nigel wanted to reflect the women's brightly coloured view of the world, and not the grimness of their reality. Read more

THE HISTORY
"At the time, the Ford factory in Dagenham was the largest factory in Europe," explains director Nigel Cole, who thoroughly researched the history of the strike for Made in Dagenham. "It's hard to believe just how huge it was, with some 55,000 men employed there, making half a million cars a year. In 1968, there were a small number of women employed in the factory as sewing machinists, sewing the car seats together. They had recently been downgraded in their pay structures as 'unskilled' and they were furious about it. Understandably so, as they were more skilled than many of the men. So they went on strike. And the strike grew and grew and, because they weren't producing the car seats, it got to the point that Ford couldn't make cars anymore. They ended up bringing the entire factory to its knees. Thousands of men were laid off and it became a huge national crisis."
Now that we know how the story ended, it's easy to see how important the strike was. But, at the time, the women must have struggled with the enormity of what they were doing, especially when they lost the support of their husbands, fathers and sons - most of whom also worked in the factory.
"Initially, they had the men's support," says Cole. "Although the men were amused by the whole thing at first, as the women hadn't been on strike before. And, in those days, as indeed it is to this day, women's work was considered less important than men's work. But, as it got more serious and the men got laid off, some of them turned against the women. They felt as though they should just stand aside and let the men get on with their jobs."
Of course, ultimately, the women's actions changed not only their conditions within the factory, but women's rights nationwide.
"It got to a point where Barbara Castle, the leading female politician of the day, got involved," continues Cole. "She negotiated the settlement with the women and out of that came the Equal Pay Act 1970. So these ordinary women, who had never been involved in anything political in their lives, suddenly found themselves at the Houses of Parliament negotiating with a senior politician and bringing about a revolution in rights for women. It is an inspiring story and it's so great to feel like you're telling a story that needs to be told."
Producer Stephen Woolley explains that the women's actions were in keeping with a year of huge political unrest and change. "1968 was the year of the Paris riots and there was a heavy sense of change in the air," he says. "This little incident in Dagenham became a massive event. It started out as this fight to be recognised as skilled workers, but then they decided to go for equal pay with the men, and that's what really caused a stir. It had huge significance around the world. The big companies didn't like the idea that they would have to pay women the same amount as men."
One of the things that appealed to Woolley about the story is the innocence and honesty with which the women acted. "They didn't have a clue as to the enormity of what they were doing," he smiles. "They weren't being calculated, and they weren't trying to buck the system. They could just see all these men, up and down the country, striking for far less reason than they had. The conditions they worked in were just horrible: this old factory with a broken roof that was freezing cold in the winter and boiling hot in the summer. They weren't given any of the rights that the men were given."
Having made 60s-set films before - notably Stoned, Scandal and Backbeat - Woolley was interested in making a film about the less glamorous side of that era.
"This film works as a reminder that, for many people, the 1960s were downtrodden and not particularly glamorous times," he explains. "Not to say that this is all doom and gloom. These women were a life force. They see the funny side of everything, despite everything they had been through. These women had endured the 1950s when there was still rationing. Their men had come back from war, having seen some horrible things and feeling incapable of working. Then things started to change in the 1960s when pop music took off and these now older, disenchanted men watched their children grow their hair and wear mini skirts. The women were holding things together, often having to deal with very feckless men. In Made in Dagenham, obviously the politics are there, but we didn't want to make a staunchly political film. Instead, it's about truth and personal stories of these women."
On reading the script, the cast and crew were mostly shocked that they had never heard the story of these women before.
"I was ashamed that I'd not known more about the revolution born in Dagenham," admits Andrea Riseborough. "And I actually felt let down, having attended an all-girls school, not to have been made aware of how instrumental these women were in paving the way for the legislation of equal pay in the late 1960s and early 1970s. This, and the fact that my own grandmother worked in a factory for most of her life, extremely underpaid, spurred me on to want to make the movie."
In fact, many of the cast actually have a close personal connection to the story of the Dagenham women.
"I grew up in Essex so I knew of the factory and some family members on my mum's side had actually worked there," says Daniel Mays. "But I didn't know anything about this story, so it was a really enlightening film to work on. It's a story that needs to be told and I'm so pleased we got the opportunity to do it."
Bob Hoskins agrees: "In 1968, I remember reading a little article in the back of a newspaper about women going on strike for equal pay," he recollects. "And I remember thinking, 'Why isn't this headline news? Of course they should be getting equal pay!' That story stayed with me, and then this script came up and I was all for it. I felt exactly like Albert does about the women's struggle."
Jaime Winstone is equally proud to be part of a film that tells such an important story, especially as it would have changed the lives of her immediate family. "My mum worked in a factory and so did my Nan, in a sewing factory," she explains. "My Nan actually taught me to sew for this role! So I realised that sewing those seats is actually the hardest job in the factory. When the women went on strike, they realised they couldn't get men to do that job, because none of them knew how to. Yet the women were graded as 'unskilled' and on the same rate of pay as the people that swept the floor. And the conditions that they were working in, with dead pigeons falling on them, were unbelievable. Meanwhile, the men were next door in the gleaming new factory. These women worked so hard and cared for their families. They must have been exhausted, and yet they carried on with this fight. It's inspiring. They didn't know the extent of what they were doing at the time. You look back know and it's revolutionary, but they couldn't have known at the time. They were a force of nature. Of course, equal pay is still an issue, and we're not there yet. But this is where it all started."
As the lead role of Rita, Sally Hawkins did a lot of research into the women of the Dagenham Ford plant, and was shocked at what she learned.
"I'm ashamed to say that I didn't know anything about the story of these women before I heard about this film," she says. "Their actions rattled industry and trade unions worldwide. But, for some reason, not many people do know about these women. It's baffling. And actually quite shameful that we had to investigate it for the film's research. They haven't really been recognised until now, which it's quite sad. This is a story that needs to be told."
Like everyone involved in the film, Hawkins is incredibly proud of it.
"I feel very lucky to be part of a film with such wonderful strong female characters," she says. "It's actually incredibly rare. Sadly, equality is very much still a fight we're fighting. In the film industry - again - it's men calling the shots and it always has been. It frustrates me enormously. The message of the film is to keep pushing yourself, and keep challenging yourself. We all have that ability to find that voice inside us."
She smiles: "As the women of Dagenham showed us, It's so important to fight for what you believe is right, even when it's scary."

NIGEL COLE (Director)
Nigel Cole's first feature Saving Grace saw his career rise straight to the top and scooped him a British Independent Film Award for Best Director and the Audience Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. This was followed up with Calendar Girls which was both a major success at the box office and critically acclaimed throughout the UK. Further feature film directorial credits include A Lot Like Love and 5 Dollars a Day.  Nigel has also directed a series of "In the Wild" celebrity wildlife documentaries which include; "Galapagos with Richard Dreyfuss", "Meg Ryan in Thailand" and "Orangutans with Julia Roberts". The latter won him a Genesis Award for PBS Documentary of the Year. Further television credits include work on popular series "Cold Feet" and ITV's medical drama "Peak Practice"

WILLIAM IVORY (Writer) 
William has written for both screen and theatre. His work includes Royal Television Society Best Drama, "Common as Muck", BAFTA nominated 'The Sins' and A Thing Called Love. 
Further credits in theatre include The Retirement of Tom Stevens, Bomber's Moon and The Truth about Eric.

THE ART OF ADAPTATION

HOME