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Our Ladies review – choir of convent schoolgirls cuts loose in Edinburgh

This adaptation of Alan Warner’s The Sopranos is led by a terrific ensemble cast – though some of the gags feel dated post #MeToo

After Alan Warner published his brilliant and hilarious third novel The Sopranos in 1998, about a group of working-class convent schoolgirls on the rampage in Edinburgh, for years the big surprise has been that it hasn’t been turned into a film. Now, finally, here it is, an adaptation of The Sopranos (renamed, for obvious reasons) – and the thing is, it’s a few years too late. Post #MeToo, there are scenes here that are a bit off; in all honesty, though, they might have felt wrong as far back as the Rotherham child abuse scandal. Such as the moment when the girls on the back of the coach flash their bras and wave “shag me” signs to passing builders’ vans.

Still, plenty of Warner’s wonderfully un-PC gags stand the test of time. “Why are nuns ballbags?” asks one of the girls. “Low wages and no sex,” jokes her mate. What’s more, Rob Roy director Michael Caton-Jones has assembled a terrific, full-of-energy ensemble cast of unknown actors to play the girls of Our Lady of Succour’s choir.

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