Inside Mrs. Joe Bradshaw - 42 year-old mother of two grown children - is the former Shirley Valentine longing to get out. Her hope and selfconfidence badly shattered bu school, marriage and life, she is reduced to talking to the kitchen wall whilst preparing her husband's evening meal - to be on the table as he opens the front door every night. As she sips a glass of wine she dreams of drinking in a country where the grape is grown. Her feminist friend offers her a holiday in Greece and, with great trepidation and a lot of forward planning, Shirley seizes the opportunity and goes, to encounter a totally different lifestyle. Shirley, breaking out of the mould casr for her by society, is brilliantly shown with humour, warm sympathy and human insight.