It Always Rains on Sunday is a 1947 British film adaptation of Arthur La Bern's novel of the same name, directed by Robert Hamer. The film has been compared with the poetic realism movement in the French cinema of a few years earlier by the British writers Robert Murphy^[3] and Graham Fuller.^[4]

The film concerns events one Sunday (23 March 1947, according to the announcement blackboard at the local underground station) in Bethnal Green, a part of the East End of London that had suffered the effects of bombing and post-war deprivation. Rose Sandigate is a former barmaid married to a middle-aged man who has two teenage daughters from a previous marriage. She is now a housewife, but with her wounded heart and kindly husband is coping with the difficulties of rationing and a drab, joyless environment. A former lover, Tommy Swann, who has served four years of a seven-year sentence for robbery with violence, escapes from prison and in a newspaper report is, as Rose discovers, on the run. In a remarkable series of flashbacks, the movie indicates that Rose must be still in love with Tommy (they were engaged when he got arrested), and he may well be the father of her young son. Tommy appears, hiding in the family's air-raid shelter. He asks her to hide him until nightfall. Rose initially refuses, but, clearly still in love with him, eventually allows him to hide in the bedroom she shares with her husband, after the other members of the household have gone out. She then keeps the bedroom door locked.

It proves extremely difficult to keep the presence of the escapee a secret in such a busy, bustling household. It is Sunday morning, the lunch must be cooked, the girls are admonished for their misdemeanours of the previous night, and the husband is packed off to the pub out of the way. Tommy needs money, and in a sad moment she gives him a jewelled ring she has been hiding. Tommy is pleased, because he can sell it well and says, ‘Where'd you get it?’. She says flatly, "It was given". He says nothing in response. (It was in fact the ring he had given to her earlier in the film.) The strain of concealment is intolerable, and as the day progresses the police net closes.A newspaper reporter unexpectedly calls at the house and interrupts them as Tommy is about to flee, and soon tips off the police. By nightfall, their secret is out, and a panic-stricken Rose tries to gas herself. The prisoner is cornered in railway sidings and arrested by the detective inspector (Jack Warner) who has been patiently tracking him. As the film ends, Rose is in hospital recovering, reconciling with her husband, who then returns alone to their home under a clear sky.