After completing her degree, Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan (Emma Stone) has returned to her parents' plantation in Jackson, Mississippi. It's the early 60s and, while most of her old circle are starting families, Skeeter harbours a burning ambition to become a writer. She manages to get work on a 'homemaker hints' column, but wholly undomesticated, turns to her friend's maid Aibileen (Viola Davis) for help.
As she gets to know the woman behind the apron, unassuming Skeeter grows uneasy with the way her privileged white friends treat their hardworking black maids. When stuck-up Hilly Holbrook (Bryce Dallas Howard) announces an initiative to build outdoor toilets for black staff, Skeeter resolves to finally give 'the help' a voice.
Beginning with Aibileen, she starts drafting a collection of the maids' stories, with many of them incriminating her own contemporaries. But getting other contributors on board proves to be nigh on impossible, with the neighbourhood maids fearing the sack, or worse, if they are caught. When Aibileen persuades her outspoken friend Minnie (Octavia Spencer) to share her experiences, Skeeter's book begins to take shape, but with unbelievably high stakes for everyone involved the project becomes ever more perilous
The Help is a Film programme that first aired in 2011 and has been classified a 12 certificate.
