{"id":790616,"date":"2026-10-03T11:28:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T11:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/790616\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T11:28:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T11:28:11","slug":"brenda-blethyns-brilliant-scottish-drama-is-the-movie-to-watch-this-weekend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/790616\/","title":{"rendered":"Brenda Blethyn’s “brilliant” Scottish drama is the movie to watch this weekend"},"content":{"rendered":"

We know that plenty of our lovely Digital Spy readers are big fans of former Vera actor Brenda Blethyn, so for this weekend’s ‘one to watch’ entry, we’re going to recommend On a Clear Day.<\/p>\n

Released in 2005, the film follows a 55-year-old man who is laid off from the shipyard he’s been working at for decades and sinks into a depression.<\/p>\n

However, a chance conversation leads to him discovering a new cause and a new lease on life.<\/p>\n

\"benedict<\/p>\n

Focus Features<\/p>\n

Who stars in On a Clear Day?Peter Mullan as main character FrankBrenda Blethyn as his wife JoanJamie Sives as their son RobJodhi May as Rob’s wife AngelaBilly Boyd as DannyBenedict Wong as ChanSean McGinley as EddieRon Cook as NormanWhat did critics say about On a Clear Day?<\/p>\n

On Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>, the film has a respectable score of 69% positive from 67 critics reviews, although due to its age, most of the links aren’t working.<\/p>\n

“It works, mostly on the strength of a fine performance by the Scottish actor Peter Mullan,” wrote the Detroit Free Press, while Associated Press dubbed it: “A thoughtful, thoroughly engaging portrait of fractured family and friends pulling together for an impossible dream.”<\/p>\n

Veteran critic Richard Roeper stated: “On a Clear Day isn’t the best of the genre, but I can’t deny it got to me”, while Flick Philosopher<\/a> said that the film was “Brutally, bleaky funny, in a way that makes you want to cry more than laugh. It is, in a word, brilliant.”<\/p>\n

\"sean<\/p>\n

Focus Features<\/p>\n

Where can I stream On a Clear Day?<\/p>\n

Good news, On a Clear Day is available to stream for free! You can watch it via Prime Video’s free with ads option<\/a>, meaning you don’t need any sort of paid subscription.<\/p>\n

There’s also the option of watching it via the Prime Video add-on The Icon Channel, which offers a seven-day free trial, if you so want.<\/p>\n

Other Brenda Blethyn films and shows to stream now<\/p>\n

As an actor with a lengthy and acclaimed career, there’s plenty to pick from when it comes to Brenda Blethyn recommendations, so we’ll go with things that released since the start of Vera in 2011.<\/p>\n

There’s 2025’s Dragonfly, a thriller about an elderly woman and her suspicious carer, which is available on ITVX. Pluto TV has 2014’s Two Men in Town, in which she stars alongside Forest Whitaker, Harvey Keitel and Luis Guzm\u00e1n.<\/p>\n

As far as TV shows go, there’s A Woman of Substance over on Channel 4. It premiered earlier this year, and will be returning for a second following a properly juicy cliffhanger.<\/p>\n

On a Clear Day can be streamed now on Prime Video.<\/p>\n

Visit our Streaming Guide<\/a> now to see at a glance where you can view ALL your favourite shows and movies.<\/p>\n

The new edition of Legends, a 100-page celebration of Dolly Parton’s life, is here. Buy Dolly in newsagents or online<\/a>.
<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he’s covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV<\/a> and movies<\/a> both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I’m a Fish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We know that plenty of our lovely Digital Spy readers are big fans of former Vera actor Brenda…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":790617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[147950,149236,379,260242,381,96,2788,190731,1156,2839,260241,223205,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-790616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-collection-prime-video","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-dfe081a8-bea2-4c48-b2fb-5035c5e05be4","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-hasproduct-true","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-gb","tag-movies","tag-shorttitle-brenda-blethyns-scottish-drama-is-one-to-watch-this-weekend","tag-sponsored-false","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=790616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/790616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/790617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=790616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=790616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=790616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}