British Comedy Guide
My Beautiful Laundrette. Image shows from L to R: Johnny (Daniel Day Lewis), Omar (Gordon Warnecke). Copyright: Film4
My Beautiful Laundrette

My Beautiful Laundrette

  • 1985 film

Comic drama about a young British-Pakistani attempting to turn around a laundrette business. Stars Gordon Warnecke, Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, Daniel Day Lewis, Derrick Branche and more.

F
X
R
W
E
My Beautiful Laundrette. Image shows from L to R: Omar (Gordon Warnecke), Johnny (Daniel Day Lewis). Copyright: Film4

Key details

Genre
Film
Released
1985
Stars
Gordon Warnecke, Saeed Jaffrey, Roshan Seth, Daniel Day Lewis, Derrick Branche, Shirley Anne Field, Richard Graham, Winston Graham and more
Writer
Hanif Kureishi
Director
Stephen Frears
Producers
Sarah Radclyffe and Tim Bevan
Companies

Second generation Brit Omar takes over the running of his wheeler-dealer uncle's decrepit London laundrette with the intention of making his way in the world by turning it into a glittering palace of commercial success.

A chance encounter brings him back into contact with a childhood friend, Johnny, now part of a violent, delinquent street gang and former member of the National Front. As unlikely as it seems and much to the disgust of Johnny's current group of friends, the two revive their friendship and begin a thorough overhaul of the business.

Soon the pair have become lovers as well as working partners. However, complications soon ensue as the anger of Johnny's deserted gang begins to build and Omar is forced to face a variety of increasingly difficult family issues, not least his constantly drunken father.

Stream and download

Additional details

UK certificate
15
Duration
97 minutes
UK release
Saturday 16th November 1985
Production
Location
Camera set-up
Single camera
Picture
Colour

Website links

Broadcast details

All previous repeats
  • Thursday 15th February 2024 at 1:10am on Film4
  • Thursday 23rd June 2022 at 11:40pm on Film4
  • Sunday 20th June 2021 at 11:15pm on Film4

Share this page