Adoption drama: Secrets & Lies (1996)
By Thomas Mirus and James Majewski ( bio - articles - email ) | Nov 24, 2025 | In Criteria: The Catholic Film Podcast
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In the 1996 British comedy-drama Secrets & Lies, a young middle-class black woman in London, having lost both of her adoptive parents, decides to seek out her biological mother—who turns out to be a working-class white woman named Cynthia.
Director Mike Leigh is known for collaborating in depth with his actors to create vivid, deeply realized characters and performances. Secrets & Lies is an outstanding specimen of a lost genre: a kitchen-sink drama that relies entirely on its rich humanity to keep us watching. Andrew Petiprin joins Criteria to discuss the movie.
Links
Spe Salvi Institute https://www.spesalviinstitute.com/
Article about the displacement of Cockneys, “Indigenous London” https://firstthings.com/indigenous-london/
Music is The Duskwhales, “Take It Back”, used with permission. https://theduskwhales.bandcamp.com
Criteria is hosted by Thomas V. Mirus and James T. Majewski.
Thomas is President of Trinity Communications, Director of Podcasts for CatholicCulture.org and hosts the Catholic Culture Podcast. See full bio.
James is Vice President of Trinity Communications and Director of Customer Relations for CatholicCulture.org as well as the host and narrator for Catholic Culture Audiobooks. See full bio.
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