Dottie is Murray's mother and a mental health nurse who becomes an important source of support for John. She recognizes his discomfort, asks about his medication, helps him leave haloperidol, welcomes him into her family, secures a job interview and stands by him after he is attacked, while also facing a liver-cancer scare.
A nurse who assists Stephen after he undergoes a life-saving tracheotomy that leaves him mute. She helps him use a spelling board and later a computer voice synthesizer. Stephen develops romantic feelings for her, which ultimately contributes to the end of his marriage to Jane.
A journalist who continues investigating the war in Chechnya despite threats, political pressure, and physical danger. She gathers evidence of torture and mass killings, challenges military and government authorities, and attempts to negotiate during the Nord-Ost hostage crisis.
Nellie is the mother at the head of a close-knit working-class family in Manchester. She helps sustain the household during the economic depression and supports reform politics by attending a meeting of the Manchester Female Reform Society. She later joins Joshua and their family at the mass meeting.
Fanny Lye lives at Blackhill Farm with her husband, John Lye, and their young son, Arthur Lye. As fugitives enter the household, Thomas Ashbury’s ideas about love and freedom challenge her religious assumptions and marriage, drawing her toward a new understanding of her suppressed desires.
Eileen is Lydia's agoraphobic, neglectful mother. She catches Lydia and Kenneth having sex and reveals that Kenneth and Lydia are only half-siblings, and that Lydia was conceived through rape. As Lydia flees, Eileen ventures outside for the first time in over sixteen years, finds her by the school, and enters the lake to cradle her after her fall.
Isabel is a mentally challenged woman whom Joseph saves from a group of teenage bullies. She begins a relationship with him as he tries to withdraw from the violent fights arranged for money. After helping locate Danny, she escapes with Joseph and Lisa and crosses by ferry to Ireland.
Anne Lister is the unmarried central character, living at Shibden Hall and seeking both romantic love and independence. She maintains a secret relationship with Mariana Belcombe, rejects Christopher Rawson's proposal, develops a business partnership with Ann Walker, and ultimately chooses to live with Ann.
Vanetia is Conor’s wife and the mother of their two children. She struggles to keep the family together after Conor’s stroke leaves him childlike and unable to work commercially. She resents Ted’s intrusive filming and observations, yet gradually values his adult companionship as she faces difficult choices about her family’s future.
The central character, a comedian from northern England who transforms poverty, family hardship, class prejudice, loneliness, and anger into sharp jokes. She uses performance as survival, confronts hostile audiences, and struggles with the unstable identity created by performing. By the end, she earns recognition through her own voice while remaining uncertain about commercial success.
Titania is portrayed by Maxine Peake and is one of the film’s principal characters. The synopsis specifically notes a kiss between Titania and Hippolyta, establishing a romantic moment between them in this adaptation.
Barbara is a translator with whom Samuel Beckett has an affair during his later life. Her relationship with Beckett forms part of the film's account of his personal history after his literary rise, alongside his marriage to Suzanne and the continuing development of his public and private identity.
Maxine Peake has 91 screen credits in a career dating back to 1996. Signature works include I Swear, Say Nothing, Words of War. Explore the interactive character relationship maps on each title page to trace how their roles connect across franchises.
