1972 - Meena (Chandeep Uppal) is 12 years old and lives in the village of Tollington, “the jewel of the Black Country”.
She is the daughter of Indian parents who have come to England to give her a better life. Her idyllic adolescence, surrounded by eccentric relatives and friends, is interrupted by the arrival in Tollington of Anita Rutter (Anna Brewster) and her dysfunctional family. At 14 – blonde, aloof, beautiful, outrageous and sassy - Anita is everything Meena thinks she wants to be. Meena wheedles her way into Anita’s life, but the arrival of a baby brother, teenage hormones, impending entrance exams for the posh grammar school and a motorcycling rebel without a future, threaten to turn her salad days sour. Anita and Me paints a comic, poignant, compassionate and colourful portrait of village life in the era of flares, power cuts, glam rock and decimilisation. Metin Huseyin’s directing credits include the feature film It Was An Accident, and the award-winning BBC dramas The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling, and Common As Muck, for which he was nominated for a BAFTA. Meera Syal is a writer, actress, playwright, comic and singer. Her screenplay Bhaji on the Beach was directed by Gurinder Chadha, and she is co-writer of the award-winning BBC comedy series Goodness Gracious Me. Published in 1996 her first novel, Anita and Me, won the Betty Trask Prize and was short-listed for the Guardian Fiction Award. Portman Film, The Film Council & BBC Films present, in association with East Midlands Media Initiative and Icon Film Distribution. A Starfield Production in association with Take 3 TV Partnership and Chest Wigs and Flares Productions.
