Onwards and Sideways

Tony Evans (Rhys Ifans) is the deputy head of a local primary school. Emma Dretzin (Laura Linney) is a pianist, composer and single mother of two daughters. Neither knows the other until a startling encounter changes the course of their lives: on the same morning, they are both confronted with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s. Rory Kinnear plays the doctor that advises them what to expect.

This is an uplifting and often funny film, with two great actors in the lead roles, which is likely to do for Parkinsons awareness and understanding what other films have done for Tourette's Syndrome, dementia and other medical conditions which, from the outside, can seem only scary.

Beautifully directed by John Madden ( Shakespeare in Love), it's written by Paul Mayhew-Archer, a TV writer best known for The Vicar of Dibley, and who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2011. He knows the disease’s hardships – but he also knows comedy, and this film is an attempt to remain honest about the hell of it while not getting too lost in the dark.