Movie fans can see the dark story of an unlikely friendship across the country from today. It enjoyed a memorable first night at the Tyneside cinema, Newcastle. Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough, both Oscar nominated before, give spellbinding performances.

Hollywood royalty came to Newcastle for the opening night of ‘Dragonfly’. Movie fans, who will be able to see the dark thriller across the country from today, did not go home disappointed on a memorable night at the Tyneside cinema.

Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough, both Oscar nominated star turns, give spellbinding performances as the next door neighbours who form an unlikely alliance.

Elderly widow Elsie Richards (Blethyn) finds friendship in the shape of downbeat loner Colleen (Riseborough) when she moves in next door on a Northern housing estate.

It was Blethyn’s first acting role after her final appearance in the hit ITV series Vera; she said the script was simply too good to turn down.

Dragonfly was filmed in Yorkshire and Riseborough revealed, to laughter from the audience in a Q&A, that she stayed at a wildlife park where she could hear the animals call at night.

Her character, abandoned by her mum and brother at an early age, admits she has no friends apart from her dog Sabre, a fierce-looking American bulldog who follows her around everywhere.

She starts to run errands for Elsie whose only visitors apart from rare appearances by her son are care nurses who shower her and make her meals.

A visit from John, Elsie’s son, (the darkest of cameos by Jason Watkins) is a turning point which brings an unforgettable ending.

As Brenda so rightly predicted, it is a film which will have the audience talking about it for hours, about loneliness, and what becomes of us in old age.

She said of her return to the Tyneside, with her parents George, a car salesman who passed on a love of cinema, and Isabel, a secretary who passed on to her daughter a love of Shakespeare: “I can’t tell you how much it means to me.

“I saw so many films here growing up, so many incredible pieces of cinema in this room.”

Her latest performance may yet see another Oscar nomination from the actor famous for ‘inhabiting’ her characters on screen.