FILM OF THE WEEK

Hidden Figures (Cert PG, 127 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Drama/Romance, available from June 19 on Amazon Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available from July 3 on DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99/4K Ultra HD Blu-ray £29.99)

Starring: Taraji P Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kevin Costner, Kirsten Dunst, Jim Parsons, Mahershala Ali.

Katherine Johnson (Taraji P Henson) and fellow mathematicians Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae) and Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) work in the segregated West Computing Group in Hampton, Virginia. They are part of Nasa's concerted effort to put a man into space before the Soviets.

Al Harrison (Kevin Costner), director of the Space Task Group, desperately needs a mathematician in his team to check computations. Supervisor Vivian Mitchell (Kirsten Dunst) selects Katherine, who is the first African-American to work with Al's crack squad.

Many of the experts, including head engineer Paul Stafford (Jim Parsons), openly discriminate against Katherine and all of the toilets in the building are for whites only. Al won't tolerate any distractions and he takes matters into his own hands, loudly declaring: "Here at Nasa, we all pee the same colour!"

Based on an inspirational true story, Hidden Figures is a crowd-pleasing drama, emboldened by sparkling performances from Henson, Monae and Spencer as women of fierce intelligence and pride, who doggedly overcome the obstacles thrown in their paths. Sterling support from Costner and Dunst, and a dramatic role for Big Bang Theory star Parsons, add to the golden lustre.

Sensitively directed by Theodore Melfi, who co-wrote the Oscar-nominated script with Allison Schroeder, this life-affirming portrait of determination in a time of bigotry and intolerance strikes every emotional chord with aplomb. Laughter and tears abound, flecked with romance and bravura recreations of key events from an era when men and women of science were literally shooting for the moon as the rest of the world watched in awe.

Rating: ****