In the Bleak Midwinter (released in the US as A Midwinter's Tale) is a 1995 British romantic comedy film written and directed by Kenneth Branagh. Many of the roles in the film were written for specific actors. This was the first film directed by Branagh in which he did not appear. The film begins with a monologue by out-of-work actor Joe Harper (Michael Maloney) about his slow decline into depression. In an attempt to beat his depression, Joe volunteers to help try to save his sister's local church from land developers for the community by putting on a Christmas production of Hamlet, somewhat against the advice of his agent Margaretta (Joan Collins). As the cast he assembles are still available even at Christmas and are prepared to do it on a 'profit sharing' basis (that is, they may not get paid anything), he cannot expect – and does not get – the cream of the cream. But although they all bring their own problems and foibles along, something bigger starts to emerge in the perhaps aptly named village of Hope. This film encapsulates the hilarious and heartbreaking struggle of actor versus situation versus life, and often versus each other. It was shot in black and white for artistic effect. Plot Joe Harper, a depressed and down-on-his-luck actor, asks his agent Margaretta D'Arcy to lend him some money to put on a final stand Christmastime production of Shakespeare's Hamlet in his hometown of Hope, Derbyshire. Wanting the rendition to be "free and experimental", Joe holds auditions that attract a variety of actors and performers, most of whom Margaretta thinks are mad. In the end, Joe casts six actors: the short-sighted and well-meaning Nina Raymond as Ophelia; the long-suffering and cynical Henry Wakefield as King Claudius; the flamboyant homosexual Terry DuBois as Queen Gertrude; the vain and self-righteous Tom Newman as Laertes, Fortinbras and other various roles; alcoholic-in-denial Carnforth Greville as Horatio and Bernardo; and former child actor Vernon Spatch as Polonius, Marcellus, and the First Gravedigger. Joe casts himself as Hamlet. Recruiting his sister Molly, Joe transports the actors and props to Hope, where they mistakenly go to the wrong site before being brought to their actual venue: a decrepit, damp and ugly church that is due for demolition by developers. Although the actors are disheartened that the venue is also their digs as well as not having expenses paid for