West Ham girl Jaime Winstone stars in Made In Dagenham

“That was the one line in the script that really hit home,” says 25-year-old Jaime. “When he says: ‘I’ve never raised my hand to you, I’ve never cheated on you, I’ve looked after the kids, why would you treat me this way?’ And her response was: ’What do you want? A medal?’ “We should be equal. It should be a given. I’m a very strong woman in that sense. I’m very driven. Men might argue, oh well one minute you want to be a powerful woman and speak out, but the next minute you want the door open for you. For me, it’s like well, I would open the door for you.”

So does Jaime feel it’s tougher for women in film industry?

“There are a lot more female directors and producers these days. It’s not necessarily sexist really, but maybe secretly, deep down there is. If a woman was to direct James Bond I’m sure there’d be a little bit of an uproar, but wouldn’t it be great?”

The middle daughter of Elaine and actor Ray Winstone, Jaime grew up in Enfield where her father had moved at the age of seven. She attended Enfield County School before moving to Roydon in Essex at the age of 15. She later studied performing arts at Harlow College but left her course to pursue a film career.

Jaime’s slight build may belie the determined woman within, but her family’s East End true grit shines through. Although her relatives didn’t work at Dagenham, they worked in similar factories.

“My mum worked in a factory and so did her mum, in a sewing factory,” she explains. “My nan taught me to sew for this role. When I originally read the script for Dagenham, I was really intrigued being a West Ham girl. Then when I got further into the script and realised what these women were doing, I was really blown away. I fell in love with Sandra straight away, I felt I know this girl. She’s torn between the doing what she believes in and that working class sense of doing what’s right and not where the money is.”

Like her dad, Jaime chooses her projects for more than purely entertainment value. Her films to date include Bullet Boy, Kidulthood, Donkey Punch and the TV series Deadset. Now living in west London, she is currently working on two films: Elfie Hopkins and The Gammons and hopes to make her West End stage debut soon. She is also working on a BBC documentary about human papillomaviruses (HPV) and cancer.

“I recently lost a very close friend of mine and it spurred me to find out a bit more about this disease and why it is growing. When the BBC approached me, I thought let’s do something that will put the message out there, and hopefully young people will listen.”

Made in Dagenham is out on October 1.

The Making of Dagenham

Made in Dagenham is by the Calendar Girls team, director Nigel Cole and co-producers Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley from Number 9 Films.

An old Hoover factory, in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales stood in for the old Ford plant, which ceased vehicle production in 2002.

The idea for Made in Dagenham came out of a programme Stephen Wooley came across on Radio 4 called The Reunion.

The film also stars Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson, Rupert Graves, Rosamund Pike, Geraldine James and Andrea Riseborough.

Made in Dagenham timeline

* In 1968 Dagenham Ford employed 187 female machinists and more than 55,000 men.

* On 29 May, the women staged a one-day stoppage after finding out they were being paid 15 per cent less than men for doing the same work.

* 5,000 men were laid-off at Ford Dagenham after the supply of finished car seats ran out. * After a three-week strike, Employment Secretary Barbara Castle met with the women to discuss terms and they agree to 92 per cent of the men’s rate.

* As a direct result of the women’s action, The Equal Pay Act became law in 1970. However, it would take another 16 years for the women to win their full grading equality.

*The strike action cost Ford £8 million in lost revenue.