Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor swaps corset for overalls with new film role

Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor will swap her corset for overalls for her role in new film The Colour Room.

She will star opposite Matthew Goode in the movie based on the rise to fame of Stoke-on-Trent ceramic artist Clarice Cliff.

Dynevor, who shot to fame as Daphne Bridgerton in the Netflix period drama, said: “I am so excited to be joining the cast of The Colour Room, especially in the role as one of the nation’s most celebrated artists, Clarice Cliff.

“It’s truly such an honour to take on such a remarkable character. The script is a beautifully written contemporary take on the 20th century, and I feel proud to be working with such a strong female team, both in front and behind the camera.

“I look forward to telling Clarice’s story, and of course working with Matthew too.”

The film will start production in Stoke-on-Trent and Birmingham later this year with Kerry Fox, David Morrissey, Darci Shaw and Luke Norris also among the cast.

Ophelia filmmaker Claire McCarthy will direct a screenplay written by Claire Peate, who won the Bafta Rocliffe new writing competition in 2016.

The film will tell the story of Cliff as a vivacious young factory worker in the industrial Midlands in the 1920s.

Her creativity and ambition drives her to move factory to factory, despite the financial impact on the household she shares with her widowed mother Ann (Fox) and youngest sister Dot (Shaw).

She takes more and more dangerous risks but impresses the eccentric factory owner Colley Shorter (Goode) with her talent and innovation.

With support from Colley and other women in the factory, she fights her way through to design the unprecedented Art Deco “Bizarre” range and becomes one of the greatest Art Deco designers and a household name.

Peate said: “The story was inspired by a single image; a young factory worker leaving her grim, industrial reality behind her and stepping into the rainbow of the Colour Room – a world of joy and possibility.

“It was thanks to the script winning at Bafta Rocliffe and being performed on stage that it was picked up, and I’m thrilled to now be working with Phoebe and Matthew in bringing The Colour Room to life.”

The film will be released in cinemas and on Sky Cinema later this year.

Sarah Wright, director of Sky Cinema and acquisitions at Sky UK & Ireland, said: “Clarice Cliff is one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century – a female pioneer who quite literally broke the mould in the English pottery industry in the 1920s.

“I can’t wait to start this all-British production and bring her incredible true story to life, starring the fabulous Phoebe Dynevor with Matthew Goode and David Morrissey.

“This film will provide a fresh take on Clarice’s professional and personal life and it is apt – and I’m hugely proud that this film is written, directed and produced by an all-female team.”