{ "id": "ep447n7zme", "slug": "sorry-we-missed-you", "title": "Sorry We Missed You", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019", "label": "Drama films 2015 to 2019", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2019", "label": "Drama films 2019", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2019" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020: Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001", "label": "Western Europe · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Sorry We Missed You is a 2019 Ken Loach drama, written by Paul Laverty, about a Newcastle family trapped by gig-economy delivery work; it premiered in Competition at Cannes 2019 and won San Sebastián's Audience Award for Best European Film.", "snippet": "Sorry We Missed You is a 2019 Ken Loach drama, written by Paul Laverty, about a Newcastle family trapped by gig-economy delivery work; it premiered in Competition at Cannes 2019 and won San Sebastián's Audience Award for Best European Film.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2019", "markdown": "# Sorry We Missed You\n\n**Sorry We Missed You** is a 2019 drama directed by [Ken Loach](https://www.edgepedia.org/ken-loach), written by Paul Laverty, and produced by Rebecca O'Brien, about a Newcastle family pushed to breaking point by gig-economy delivery work and zero-hours care work. It premiered in [Competition](https://www.edgepedia.org/competition) at the Cannes Film Festival on 16 May 2019 and is a companion piece to Loach and Laverty's 2016 [Palme d'Or](https://www.edgepedia.org/palme-dor) winner *I, Daniel Blake*, shifting that film's focus from the welfare state to the private-sector labor market.[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/sorry-we-missed-you/) • [2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/sorry-we-missed-you-review-ken-loach-counts-cost-striving-austerity-britain)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / writer / producer | Ken Loach; screenplay Paul Laverty; producer Rebecca O'Brien[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/sorry-we-missed-you/) |\n| Year, runtime, setting | 2019; 100 minutes; Newcastle upon Tyne and the surrounding Tyneside area[3](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/sorry-we-missed-you) |\n| Principal cast | Kris Hitchen (Ricky), Debbie Honeywood (Abby), Rhys Stone (Seb), Katie Proctor (Liza Jane)[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/sorry-we-missed-you/) |\n| Festival premieres | In Competition, Cannes, 16 May 2019 (world premiere); Masters section, Toronto International Film Festival, 12 September 2019[1](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/sorry-we-missed-you/) • [4](https://embed.letterboxd.com/film/sorry-we-missed-you/releases/) |\n| Production | Sixteen Films and Why Not production, backed by the BFI and BBC Films, co-produced with Les Films du Fleuve; shot from 11 September 2018 for six weeks[5](https://www.screendaily.com/news/-ken-loachs-sorry-we-missed-you-begins-shoot-eone-to-release-in-uk/5132561.article) |\n| Box office | $8,943,790 worldwide, of which $28,273 was domestic (United States)[6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt8359816/credits/) |\n| Reception | 88% Tomatometer from 157 reviews and 82% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes; Metascore of 82 from 29 reviews[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sorry_we_missed_you) • [8](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8359816/criticreviews/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and themes\n\nRicky and Abby live in Newcastle with their two children, Seb and Liza Jane. Ricky has moved between laboring jobs since losing his job and mortgage in the 2008 financial crash, while Abby works as a home care worker for elderly and disabled clients. Seeing self-employment as their route to independence and eventually their own home, they make a bet: Abby sells her car, which she needs for her care rounds, so Ricky can put down the deposit on a van and work as a self-employed delivery driver for a parcel firm.[3](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/sorry-we-missed-you) • [9](https://kinolorber.com/film/sorry-we-missed-you)\n\nThe job is presented to Ricky in the language of entrepreneurship. The depot boss Maloney tells recruits, \"You don't get hired here... You come on board. We call it on-boarding. You don't work for us – you work with us,\" and Ricky is told he can be \"the master of your own destiny.\" In practice the arrangement carries no contract, no confirmed earnings, and no benefits; Ricky must meet strict targets under a penalty system, paying a £1,000 deposit for the van, hundreds of pounds in fines for lateness, and thousands if he loses parcels or his scanner, even when he is robbed.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/03/sorry-we-missed-you-review-ken-loach) • [11](https://www.timeout.com/movies/sorry-we-missed-you)\n\n**Two jobs, one squeeze.** The film cuts between Ricky's delivery rounds, timed and monitored by an app and a handheld scanner, and Abby's care work, where her subcontractor employer allots her appointments too short to let her treat patients as she wants to, under her rule to \"treat them like your mam.\" Without the car, Abby's rounds lengthen and her time with patients shrinks. Their son Seb skips school and gets into trouble over graffiti, and the family's mutual care is strained as both parents are pulled in different directions.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/03/sorry-we-missed-you-review-ken-loach) • [12](https://www.netflixmovies.com/sorry-we-missed-you-2019)\n\nThe title carries a double meaning identified by several critics: it is the faux-friendly note left on doorsteps by parcel firms, and it points to the people the system leaves behind.[11](https://www.timeout.com/movies/sorry-we-missed-you) • [13](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sorry-we-missed-you-movie-review-2020)\n\n## Production\n\nLoach and Laverty began developing the film in 2017 as a follow-up to *I, Daniel Blake*. Laverty conducted off-the-record interviews with delivery drivers and care-sector workers in Newcastle and Tyneside to ground the screenplay, and the production shot in real working-class housing estates, on delivery routes across the city, and at a working delivery depot.[14](https://saturation.io/budgets/sorry-we-missed-you-2019) • [15](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/films/sorry-we-missed-you/)\n\nCasting followed Loach's practice of favoring lesser-known actors. [Kris Hitchen](https://www.edgepedia.org/kris-hitchen), a British stage and television actor with credits including *Coronation Street* and *Brassic*, took his first feature lead as Ricky; Debbie Honeywood, known mainly for British television, played Abby in her first feature lead.[14](https://saturation.io/budgets/sorry-we-missed-you-2019) [Principal photography](https://www.edgepedia.org/principal-photography) began on 11 September 2018 and ran for six weeks in Newcastle and the surrounding area, with Entertainment One set to release in the UK and Wild Bunch handling international sales.[5](https://www.screendaily.com/news/-ken-loachs-sorry-we-missed-you-begins-shoot-eone-to-release-in-uk/5132561.article) Much of the van interior was shot handheld with Loach strapped in the back, since the script's heavy driving made conventional coverage cumbersome.[16](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/101/35/205669/presse/sorry-we-missed-you-dossier-de-presse-anglais.pdf) The crew included editor Jonathan Morris, cinematographer Robbie Ryan, and composer [George Fenton](https://www.edgepedia.org/george-fenton).[6](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt8359816/credits/)\n\n## Release and reception\n\nAfter the Cannes world premiere in Competition on 16 May 2019, the film screened at festivals including Toronto, Sydney, Shanghai, and [San Sebastián](https://www.edgepedia.org/san-sebastian), where it won the Audience Award for Best European Film.[4](https://embed.letterboxd.com/film/sorry-we-missed-you/releases/) • [17](https://media.dohafilm.com/sites/default/files/prod/2025-04/Ajyal2019Catalogue-EN.pdf) France received it theatrically on 23 October 2019 through Le Pacte; the UK release followed through eOne, and Zeitgeist Films released it in the United States on 6 March 2020 in association with Kino Lorber.[18](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/47847/sorry-we-missed-you) • [7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sorry_we_missed_you) The European Union's MEDIA sub-program supported its distribution with nearly €1 million across 22 countries, a grant a later academic assessment credits as essential to the film's profitability against its $8,943,790 worldwide gross.[19](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/33214/1/White%20Rose%20Etheses%20Online%20new.pdf)\n\nCritical response was strongly positive. Peter Bradshaw of *The Guardian* gave it five stars, calling it \"fierce, open and angry, unironised and unadorned\"; *The Hollywood Reporter*'s David Rooney described \"a drama of such searing human empathy and quotidian heartbreak that its powerful climactic scenes actually impede your breathing.\"[8](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8359816/criticreviews/) Reviewers noted the film's research-based construction: the *Los Angeles Times* observed that because Laverty and Loach took their cues from interviews, the tension stays visceral rather than artificially heightened.[20](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-03-05/sorry-we-missed-you-review-ken-loach) *Sight and Sound*'s Trevor Johnston judged it a more nuanced state-of-the-nation address than *I, Daniel Blake*, less sentimentally affecting but more troubling, and noted that unlike the earlier film it contains no on-the-nose ideological speeches.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/sorry-we-missed-you-review-ken-loach-counts-cost-striving-austerity-britain) Some critics were cooler: *TheWrap* found its bluntness \"occasionally potent but just as often wearying,\" and the *Los Angeles Times* reviewer was less convinced by the family dynamics.[8](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8359816/criticreviews/)\n\n## Real-world context\n\nThe film's depiction of self-employed courier work drew on documented conditions. It was partly inspired by the death of Don Lane, a Deutsche Post Delivery (DPD) courier who collapsed in December 2017 after a long round of pre-Christmas deliveries and died in January 2018; DPD charged couriers £150 for a canceled round they could not cover, and Lane, a diabetic, had missed hospital appointments for that reason, according to his widow.[21](https://www.ilawnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Issue-Brief-TAKEN-FOR-A-RIDE-English.pdf) Research published by [Citizens Advice](https://www.edgepedia.org/citizens-advice) in 2021 found that parcel delivery drivers, though many enjoyed their jobs, were often highly pressurized with high workloads and insufficient time per delivery, pressures that also harmed consumers through missed deliveries and parcels left in insecure locations.[22](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/policy/publications/sorry-we-missed-you/)\n\nUnder UK rules, zero-hours contracts, also called casual contracts, guarantee the employer no obligation to provide work and the worker no obligation to accept it, while still entitling workers to the National Minimum Wage and statutory annual leave.[23](https://www.gov.uk/contract-types-and-employer-responsibilities/zero-hour-contracts) The film has since been used in academic and legal discussions of platform labor: a 2025 study in the *International Social Sciences Journal* read it as a cultural text whose characters' income instability, long hours, lack of social security, and intrafamily conflict correspond to the structural insecurity described in the platform-economy literature, and argued for redefining the legal status of platform workers and making algorithmic supervision transparent.[24](https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1406791) The International Lawyers Assisting Workers Network has cited the film as a vivid portrayal of workers \"managed by a ruthless algorithm\" in the gig economy.[21](https://www.ilawnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Issue-Brief-TAKEN-FOR-A-RIDE-English.pdf)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Sorry We Missed You, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/sorry-we-missed-you/)\n2. [Trevor Johnston, \"Sorry We Missed You review: Ken Loach counts the cost of striving in austerity Britain,\" Sight and Sound, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/sorry-we-missed-you-review-ken-loach-counts-cost-striving-austerity-britain)\n3. [Sorry We Missed You, British Council UK Films Database](https://filmsandfestivals.britishcouncil.org/projects/sorry-we-missed-you)\n4. [Sorry We Missed You release info, Letterboxd](https://embed.letterboxd.com/film/sorry-we-missed-you/releases/)\n5. [Orlando Parfitt, \"Ken Loach's 'Sorry We Missed You' begins shoot, eOne to release in UK,\" Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/news/-ken-loachs-sorry-we-missed-you-begins-shoot-eone-to-release-in-uk/5132561.article)\n6. [Sorry We Missed You (2019), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt8359816/credits/)\n7. [Sorry We Missed You, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sorry_we_missed_you)\n8. [Sorry We Missed You (2019), Metacritic reviews via IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8359816/criticreviews/)\n9. [Sorry We Missed You, Kino Lorber Theatrical](https://kinolorber.com/film/sorry-we-missed-you)\n10. [Mark Kermode, \"Sorry We Missed You review – a gruelling stint in the gig economy,\" The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/nov/03/sorry-we-missed-you-review-ken-loach)\n11. [Dave Calhoun, \"Sorry We Missed You,\" Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/sorry-we-missed-you)\n12. [Sorry We Missed You (2019), NetflixMovies.com plot summary](https://www.netflixmovies.com/sorry-we-missed-you-2019)\n13. [Nell Minow, \"Sorry We Missed You movie review,\" RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/sorry-we-missed-you-movie-review-2020)\n14. [Sorry We Missed You (2019) production history, Saturation.io](https://saturation.io/budgets/sorry-we-missed-you-2019)\n15. [Sorry We Missed You, Independent Cinema Office](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/films/sorry-we-missed-you/)\n16. [Sorry We Missed You press dossier, Unifrance](https://medias.unifrance.org/medias/101/35/205669/presse/sorry-we-missed-you-dossier-de-presse-anglais.pdf)\n17. [Ajyal Film Festival 2019 catalogue, Doha Film Institute](https://media.dohafilm.com/sites/default/files/prod/2025-04/Ajyal2019Catalogue-EN.pdf)\n18. [Sorry We Missed You, Unifrance](https://en.unifrance.org/movie/47847/sorry-we-missed-you)\n19. [White Rose eTheses: MEDIA distribution support for UK films](https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/id/eprint/33214/1/White%20Rose%20Etheses%20Online%20new.pdf)\n20. [Robert Abele, \"Ken Loach delivers a searing critique of U.K. gig economy in 'Sorry We Missed You',\" Los Angeles Times](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-03-05/sorry-we-missed-you-review-ken-loach)\n21. [Jason Moyer-Lee and Nicola Kountouris, \"The 'Gig Economy': Litigating the Cause of Labour,\" International Lawyers Assisting Workers Network](https://www.ilawnetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Issue-Brief-TAKEN-FOR-A-RIDE-English.pdf)\n22. [\"Sorry we missed you,\" Citizens Advice, 29 July 2021](https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/policy/publications/sorry-we-missed-you/)\n23. [\"Contract types and employer responsibilities: Zero-hours contracts,\" GOV.UK](https://www.gov.uk/contract-types-and-employer-responsibilities/zero-hour-contracts)\n24. [Tuğba Gücenmez, \"Platform Labor, Precarity, and the Social Costs of Family,\" CEEOL](https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=1406791)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2015 to 2019 › Drama films 2019*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/sorry-we-missed-you", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/sorry-we-missed-you.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Sorry We Missed You\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/sorry-we-missed-you. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Sorry We Missed You](https://www.edgepedia.org/sorry-we-missed-you)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/sorry-we-missed-you](https://www.edgepedia.org/sorry-we-missed-you). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Sorry We Missed You\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/sorry-we-missed-you. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Sorry We Missed You is a 2019 Ken Loach drama, written by Paul Laverty, about a Newcastle family trapped by gig-economy delivery work; it premiered in Competition at Cannes 2019 and won San Sebastián's Audience Award for Best European Film." }