Joan revealed Dunn’s ear for authentic small town dialogue and a talent for awkward social situations.

Ruby Blue, like Gypo, is a darker take on small town narrow-mindedness, and marks a technical leap forward from Dunn’s previous work.

Jack (Hoskins) is a recently widowed pensioner, estranged from his son, and resisting the comforts of the bottle.

A pigeon racer, Jack slowly builds up an unlikely nuclear family of neighbours, including French divorcee Stephanie (Balasko), plucky red-headed Florrie (Stewart) and flirting-with-the-wrong-side-of-the tracks teen Ian (Latham), who discovers a passion for Jack’s grey-feathered birds, particularly the champion Ruby Blue.

But, this idyll comes under suspicion from the community, and reaches critical mass when Florrie goes missing.

Ruby Blue chavs it large with a shopping list of social issues including neglectful parents, alcoholism, binge drinking, joy riding, and paedophile hysteria, plus a character twist likely to split audiences.

Dunn’s script is happy-slapped silly by the weight of these subjects and its broadstroke yobs (particularly Florrie's friend's abusive, illiterate, littering dole mole mum), while the pocket money budget leaves an unwanted student film feel.

Better are the quieter scenes of Jack’s makeshift family, helped no end by Hoskins’ fine, nuanced turn, and Balasko's bouyant performance.

Flawed, but Dunn may yet prove herself the female Ken Loach.

Rob Daniel