In the London of our days, Sam (Sheridan Smith, excellent), working class single mother, in the dark dawn of the city she struggles to combine her two daughters’ school schedule with her daily job as a cleaner at a financial firm. Doe-eyed and vulnerable-looking, she doesn’t catch the attention of the arrogant men in suits she eventually passes in the hallways. But she has something in common with almost all of them, which is a secret gambling addiction.
In your case, you don’t need to go to a betting house or a casino, it’s not about money either. Not even to win. It is blocking stress, anxiety and depression. Nothing less. Her obsession with online roulette plunges her into a website called “Ladies Night Casino”. Practice this addictive game at work, in the car and at home. We watch in horror as she repeatedly presses the “Spin Again” option on his smartphone, only to lose again and again.
Furthermore, the eldest of her daughters has the opportunity to enter “one of the best dance schools in the country”, with all the expense that will entail. In addition, their father seeks custody of her on the grounds that she will probably try to sell even her hair to immerse herself in cyberspace.
By chance, he overhears a stockbroker, who stays late in the office and discusses on the phone about an illegal transaction for which he would be sentenced to seven years in prison if caught. Sam, at that moment, realizes not only that the man is being blackmailed by the use of inside information, but that she can use and traffic the lucrative stock market data, to which she has daily access. She just has to learn, through Google, how to do it for her own benefit, and leave a miserable life behind. She teams up with Jess (the brilliant Jade Anouka), her most sensible friend, and they immediately celebrate when a £50 investment multiplies by 500.
Of course, his seems like a small, victimless crime, in the style of a modern Robin Hood. Meanwhile, in radio ads, the haughty Theresa May, former British prime minister, preaches that “work is the best route out of poverty,” while text messages from the debt collector pile up. In this way, to survive, regain self-esteem and get her life back on track, the protagonist is willing to do anything. Viewers will no doubt sympathize with her drive to continue playing in money markets that have always been rigged against simple people like her.
