Seven applicants, mostly from the north - west of England, are chosen, all go through classes conducted by the charismatic teacher Sam Rumbelow, and five are channelled into mini-films that range through a troubled daughter playing Cordelia, a professional Lear, a would - be suicide identifying with the last days of Mussolini, and a sad 40 - year - old
romantic casting herself as a working - class Celia Johnson in a deadly
serious reworking of Brief
Encounter.