It’s easy to take Leigh’s work for granted, even minor-key projects such as this, but the hardest truth of all is how irreplaceable he still is in British cinema.

Hard Truths makes for an endlessly hard watch with a seemingly unfluctuating screenplay (as static as Pansy’s own life) moving from one simmering encounter of hers to another.

It’s a character-driven drama that jolts you awake to how pain can manifest in people, and why even the most annoying ones are deserving of compassion.

A work of pure alchemy transforming misanthropic comedy into a brutal downer.