Dreams Of A Life - Trailer

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In 2006, bailiffs in London's Wood Green found the remains of a woman in a bedsit. Her TV was switched on to BBC; bills and letters were piled high by the front door; unwrapped presents and Christmas wrapping paper surrounded the sofa where the woman had been lying on.

The woman's name was Joyce Vincent and she had died in 2003. No one had discovered her body for almost three years; no one was aware that she had died. The bailiffs had come round to her bedsit to investigate unpaid bills. The skeletal remains of Joyce were so decomposed that she was only identified by dental records and old photographs of a younger, happier woman.

Director Carol Morley was haunted by the short news article on Joyce and set about to contact relatives and friends of the tragic woman. What she discovered was startling - Joyce wasn't reclusive and distant, as perhaps first thought but was very popular and sociable. She had distanced herself from her family but she was much loved by friends and admirers.

An aspiring singer, friends recount how she knew the singers Judy Cheeks; Anita Baker and Stevie Wonder and the actor Denzel Washington. Carol also discovers, through one of Joyce's many friends, footage of the thirty eight year old meeting Nelson Mandela backstage at the tribute concert in 1990.

By using reconstructions of Joyce's short life, Carol sets out to discover who Joyce Vincent really was and why she died alone in a bedsit in one of London's busiest areas.

Starring: Zawe Ashton