In a South London pub, Ray and his friend Mark recruit heroin addict Billy for a heist they're planning. After successfully pulling off the scam, they head for a night on the town, drinking, gambling and visiting strip clubs. The following morning, Ray suspects Billy has ripped off some of his drugs and confronts him; when Billy denies guilt, Ray beats him up. When his mother refuses to lend him more money to buy drugs, Billy breaks into Ray and his wife Val's council flat and steals Ray's favourite painting. In the pub having a quiet drink with her friends, Val reveals how she's sick of her husband's drunken violence but doesn't feel she can leave him because she's pregnant with her second child. When Ray drops in and sees her playing pool with another man, he orders her home, which she reluctantly does. Back at the flat, he accuses her of being unfaithful, which she denies, but he beats her up anyway, causing her to miscarry. In a rage of self-pity, Ray smashes up the flat and then tries to make amends with Val, but, in her first show of open defiance, she tells him she's fed up with his boozing and bullying. What could have been a depressing depiction of South London life is saved by great performances, particularly from the hulking Ray Winstone as Ray and Kathy Burke as his long-suffering wife, and from a realistic script which doesn't skimp on humour. Actor Gary Oldman's accomplished directorial debut.