Cathy Tyson

In Mona Lisa (1986), Cathy Tyson lets Bob Hoskins’s George fall in love without giving us permission to assume Simone feels the same. He is the ex-convict hired to drive her; she is the sex worker whose detachment he cannot quite understand. Hoskins makes George’s need for affection visible, while Tyson keeps Simone’s feelings harder to read. We were moved by their scenes together because her restraint makes his hopefulness seem painfully exposed.

Neil Jordan gives her a difficult task, and the writing by Jordan and David Leland does not always help. So much attention goes to George’s feelings that Simone has less room to express her own. Tyson suggests a life beyond his understanding, but the screenplay sometimes relies too heavily on our uncertainty about her. Her reserve sustains their uneasy attachment; it cannot supply everything the writers have left out. The later thriller plotting is less persuasive, too, though neither reservation spoils the pleasure of watching the pair.

It was her film debut, but leading film opportunities remained limited afterwards. Antonia Bird’s Priest (1994) was followed by a prominent television role as Carol Johnson in Band of Gold (1995–97), again playing a sex worker. Simone and Carol share a composure that gives both women dignity. As she put it when discussing gaps in her career: “I just didn’t get the work. That’s part of being an actor.”

Help (2021), with Tyson as Polly, brought her renewed prominence, and television has given her substantial work. In Criminal Record (2024), she plays Doris Mathis in the tense police drama led by Peter Capaldi and Cush Jumbo. Its secondary stories sometimes weaken the pressure, but the central contest is worth staying for. Start with Mona Lisa, though, and resist the temptation to let the more demonstrative actor have all the attention.