Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day is a 2026 romantic drama film, directed by Tina Gharavi from a screenplay by Justine Waddell, adapted from Virginia Woolf’s 1919 novel. The film had its world premiere at the South by Southwest London Festival on 1 June and was released generally in the UK on 19 June. (SXSW London is apparently a music, film and technology festival hosted in the Shoreditch and Hoxton areas of London – I can’t say I wasn’t warned!)

In London in 1910, young headstrong female astronomer Katharine Hilbery (Haley Bennett) tries to sidestep her parents’ plans for her to marry into society, in order to pursue her dream of studying astronomy at Cambridge University. Her ultra controlling father, Terence Hilbery (Timothy Spall) pushes her into an engagement with her oldest friend William (Jack Whitehall) who is also a long-time friend of the family. Meanwhile her mother, Jess Hilbury (Jennifer Saunders) is writing some kind of biography relating to her family. Then Katharine (who likes to be called Kit) befriends spirited suffragette Mary Datchet (Lily Allen), who encourages her to stand up for herself, as if she needed encouragement. And on it goes, rather relentlessly and totally uninterestingly.

I do not know Virginia Woolf’s novel; however, I am told this is only very loosely based on it anyway, and has been “modernised”, whatever that means. I am guessing that Mrs Woolf would barely recognise any of the caricatures presented here, for there are no properly drawn characters, and she would be utterly appalled at this cliché-ridden nonsense. This is not good writing.

I do not understand why they had to use an American actress in her late thirties to play an English girl in her early twenties and can only assume that all the available English girls of the right age had read the script in advance and called-in sick. Even the ever-reliable Timothy Spall could make nothing of the blustering cliché he had been given to inhabit, and Jack Whitehall looked extremely uncomfortable in his role as the fiancé, although that could be because he is a stand-up comedian and not an actor. Somewhere along the line blame must be apportioned (because I want my £11.95 back) and I suppose this must go to Tina Gharavi as the director who failed to get anything from her cast, along with Justine Waddell, who gave her very little to work with.

The only bright note? Lily Allen was surprisingly good in the role of Mary, a real breath of fresh air. She single-handedly took this from one star to two.

Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day is very bad indeed – don’t waste your money!