Waris Hussein, Margaret Drabble and Ian McKellen all met at Cambridge, and then a few years later came together to make this compelling and moving 1969 British drama, A Touch of Love. By this time Waris Hussein had made a name for himself directing the first episodes of Dr. Who for the BBC and Margaret Drabble was a succesful novelist. She adapted the screenplay from her own novel The Millstone.

Oscar-winning actress Sandy Dennis (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf) stars as Rosamund, a student and daughter of emotionally distant parents. After her first sexual encounter with handsome television announcer George, played by Ian McKellen (The Good Liar, The Lord of The Rings), Rosamund discovers she’s pregnant. She fails in an attempt to terminate the pregnancy, then she decides to keep the baby despite pressure from friends and relatives. Preparing herself for the indignities and isolation that being a single mother will bring, she also looks forward to resuming her academic career. She has no wish to involve George in parenting, and when the baby falls ill, she realises the only important thing in her life is her child. Also starring John Standing (The Teckman Mystery) and Eleanor Bron (Sapphire).

A Touch of Love offers a refreshing and thoughtful depiction of Swinging 60s London, exploring the relevance of traditional values in postwar Britain’s increasing liberal society and showing in a critical light the dehumanizing ways society treated a single mother trying to raise her child. In an acclaimed, moving performance Sandy Dennis captures the vulnerability and resilience of Rosamund, alongside a 28-year-old Ian McKellen, already showing signs of greatness, in his first significant film role as the oblivious George.