The Colour Room

When we meet her, Clarice Cliff is a young, ambitious pottery worker who flits from company to company in order to gain as much experience within different departments as possible - at the time it was not unusual for someone to specialise one particular task for their entire working life. Clarice is ambitious and talented, but her talent has yet to be discovered.

Claire McCarthy's, The Colour Room is the story of the rise of Clarice and her struggle to have her talent recognised.

She is ably played by Phoebe Dynevor, best known as one of the main characters in the Netflix hit, Bridgerton. Dynevor imbues Clarice with vivacity, wit and charm, and her ambition is portrayed as enthusiasm and passion.

Opposite her, Matthew Goode gives us his generic but still very watchable posh chap in the part of factory owner and lover, Colley Short.

Solid support comes from Kerry Fox as Clarice's mother and David Morrissey, rather underused as the company's art director who takes Clarice under his wing.

The screenplay is by Claire Peate who takes some liberties with the story - five of Clarice's six siblings seem to have evaporated and the success of her first range of pottery, the famous 'Bizarre' ware, central to this story, was pretty much instant rather than the uphill struggle we see. However, Peate gives the story contemporary relevance by emphasising the struggle of a woman trying to break into man's world - one co-worker who is suspicious of her being brought in to apprentice in the all-male modelling department voices his misgivings with "What if she's one of them suffragettes?". This could be the story of any woman trying to break through the glass, or in this case, ceramic ceiling.

Elsewhere, the adulterous nature of Clarice's relationship with Colley is rather played down, with Colley's wife scarcely making an appearance in case, one assumes, we start to develop any sympathies for her.

The cinematography and art direction are attractive with Clarice presaging her later ceramics in the colours of her clothes. However, the CGI scenes of ranks of bottle kilns belching smoke into the sky are somewhat unconvincing.

Undemanding, but with enough to keep the audience engaged, this straightforward biopic earns a respectable seven and makes for a decent, Sunday night movie to round off a weekend.

Would have liked to see more about Clarice's family life and friendships amongst the women who worked in the potteries. Apparently she came from a big family but we only saw her mother and sister. There was a very half hearted attempt to suggest romance between Cliff and Colley Storer. In fact they married. It was interesting to see how Cliff was inspired by colours and shapes and the processes behind producing fine china. The demographics for the potteries in the 1920s was not represented correctly there were too many ethnic minorities. A historical docudrama should try and reflect the period not modern day demographics.

"No man can appreciate and produce beautiful things whose sense of color is outraged every day by the dirt and soot that covers everything"

Pottery Gazette, 1919.

"The Colour Room" chronicles the life and work of English potter Clarice Cliff. A period drama that links the "romantic" 1920s with the story of a woman capable of overcoming her ingenuity in the face of any adversity.

Starring Phoebe Dynevor, in her film debut. "The color room", interposes Clarice's creativity, with the industrialized and misogynistic world of that time; Added to the charismatic performances, this film has all the nuances that are required to build a quite believable and entertaining story.

"Because of the heart of the story and its loving interpretations, "The Colour Room" is a very fine piece of pottery"

Saw this advertised on sky and thought I'd give it a try. My wife thought it would be boring but watched it anyway. As a thirty year old I always used to go to antique auction and Clarice cliff always came up for sale and made good money. A great insight into the origins of Clarice cliff and how Stoke became the heart of pottery making. Watch the film, don't over think the story and just enjoy it.

This is the true story of Clarice Cliff, a British pottery artist in the 1920's who beat the odds by rising from humble beginnings in the North of England in an industry dominated by men, to establish her own brand of ceramics to appeal to women that is still sold today.

Phoebe Dynevor is well cast as Clarice as is Matthew Goode as the upper class factory owner and David Morrissey as her boss. I had no idea who Clarice Cliff was and had no interest in the subject matter but it is such a well made drama that I found myself getting more and more absorbed into the story thanks to Claire McCathy's competent direction and swift pacing. You find yourself rooting for Clarice and balk at the blatant sexism that went on in those days and the courage Clarice faced to overcome the prevailing attitudes.

It reminded me of Made in Dagenham (2010) which was another true story about women in the Ford car plant making a stand against sexual discrimination in the work place. The Colour Room is more than that, it's about believing in yourself and never giving up on your dreams and if you have a passion for something you will find a way to overcome obstacles that stand in your way.