Category: English

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Travis Van Isacker, Senior Research Associate, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol

The deaths of at least 31 people in the Channel on November 24 2021 were “avoidable”, an independent inquiry has found. The final report of the Cranston inquiry highlights known problems at HM Coastguard that were not resolved, calling them a “significant, systemic failure on the part of government”, which led to this crossing becoming Britain’s deadliest small boat disaster.

The report points blame at the people smugglers who “provided an unsuitable craft and inadequate safety equipment” for the crossing, as well as the French navy for failing to respond to a mayday alert.

Most of its criticisms, however, were reserved for HM Coastguard’s flawed search and rescue operation and other systemic problems, despite failings attributable to individual officers.

These findings vindicate the accounts of the two survivors, rescued from the sea more than 12 hours after calling for help. It also vindicates family members of the deceased who first raised the coastguard’s failings immediately after the disaster. The bereaved families and survivors have held all along that the tragedy was “preventable”.

The incident

The night of November 23 to 24, a dinghy with at least 33 people on board began taking on water in the middle of the Channel. Some travellers tried to bail the freezing water out and keep the rubber tubes inflated. Others made desperate calls for help.

Neither French nor British coastguards took enough responsibility for coordinating an effective rescue. Transcripts revealed that travellers were at one point told by British call-handlers they must be in French waters and should call the French coastguard instead, after the time when formal responsibility for search and rescue had passed to the British coastguard. Teenager Mubin Rizghar Hussein, who was aboard the boat, was told that a rescue ship was on its way but that he needed to “be patient” and stop calling.

By the time the Border Force ship arrived to the sinking dinghy’s last known location, it had drifted away. Other small boats in the area were rescued instead and the distress calls stopped once the dinghy capsized.

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Read more:
‘We were treated like animals’: the full story of Britain’s deadliest small boat disaster

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Public inquiries are usually convened quickly after such disastrous incidents. But the fact that the British government initially refused to accept that the sinking occurred in UK waters delayed an accountability process.

Survivors and bereaved families fought hard for accountability, and the Cranston inquiry was ultimately commissioned in January 2024 by the Department for Transport.

Over four weeks of public hearings in March 2025, officers involved in the UK’s search and rescue response gave oral evidence. One survivor, Issa Mohamed Omar, and members of the grieving families also gave evidence. After three years, they were given the chance for their voices to be heard.

Systemic failures

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency asserted in its closing statement that “the real causes” of the shipwreck were factors outside HM Coastguard’s control. The inquiry rejected this, finding that a number of problems at the agency contributed to the deaths.

These included chronic staffing issues at Dover’s Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, inadequate supervision and insufficient remote assistance for coastguard officers. The inquiry also pointed to the lack of training for call-handlers, who widely believed that travellers on small boats “exaggerated their level of distress”.

“Flawed decisions” by several coastguard staff involved in the search and rescue operations were also criticised in the report. In particular, this included not treating the information received from those onboard the sinking dinghy “at face value”. The inquiry found that short staffing at the Dover centre led to there being only one fully qualified staff member on duty the night of the incident, who was unable to take a break during the shift, and left “feeling overwhelmed and fatigued.”

Decisions made in that context ultimately led to the search being called off prematurely, meaning no one in the UK was searching for the people who were perishing in the cold waters of the Channel throughout the morning.

The inquiry finally highlighted the failure of the French response. When the coastguard at Dover broadcast a mayday relay for the sinking dinghy which mandated all ships to respond, the French warship Flamant — approximately 15 minutes away — ignored the request. Had the Flamant responded, “many more and possibly all lives would have been saved”, the report said.

There is an ongoing criminal investigation into the French warship and coastguard officers.

Deadlier crossings since

The inquiry’s investigation focused on offering “truth” for the families regarding what happened to their loved ones. Its recommendations therefore focused on improving search and rescue operations to prevent the likelihood of a similar incident occurring again, not to consider small boat crossings more generally.

The inquiry noted that “much has improved since November 2021”, but still people continue to die in the Channel. Despite increased surveillance, improved communications technology and more rescue ships, an unprecedented 82 people were reported to have died in 2024. At least 24 deaths were reported last year.

Monitoring organisations have pointed out that, beyond the inherent danger of small boat journeys, “stop the boats” policies have led to more overcrowding and chaotic launches of dinghies – with more deaths as a result. Specifically they highlight the £500 million agreement with France, introduced by the former Conservative government, which has paid for 500 more French police to patrol the coast. The assumption that preventing boats from leaving French shores will “save lives” is, however, a mistaken one.

Many of the deadly incidents since 2021 have occurred on the beaches and in the shallow waters just off the French coast as police try and stop dinghies from launching. What the then Labour home secretary, Yvette Cooper described in 2024 as heroic efforts to prevent crossings were recognised by France’s interior minister as also leading to an increase in deaths.

As constructive as the inquiry’s report is for improving search and rescue for small boats in the Channel, it has not grappled with this changed context. So long as the UK’s border controls in Europe exist, Channel deaths will continue, even if government agencies implement all the inquiry’s recommendations.

Travis Van Isacker receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) (Grant Ref: ES/W002639/1).

– ref. Deaths of 31 people in UK’s worst small boat disaster caused by government’s ‘systemic failure’ – the Cranston inquiry conclusions explained – https://theconversation.com/deaths-of-31-people-in-uks-worst-small-boat-disaster-caused-by-governments-systemic-failure-the-cranston-inquiry-conclusions-explained-274920

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Thomas Keegan, Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology, Lancaster University

When the UK’s offensive chemical and biological weapons programmes were terminated in the 1950s, work at the high-security military research centre in Porton Down, Wiltshire switched to defensive strategies. These included developing chemicals for use in riot control and countermeasures to the evolving threat of chemical and biological weapons.

Before being tested on military personnel, potential riot control compounds had to go through an informal preliminary screening. According to a 2006 history of Porton Down published by the Ministry of Defence (MoD), this would sometimes involve laboratory staff “cautiously sniffing” new compounds in order to “eliminate the less promising ones”.

Today’s scientists working inside the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), which is headquartered at Porton Down, won’t be doing any sniff tests. But according to an anonymous whistleblower, Porton’s CEO, Paul Hollinshead, has warned that the laboratory needs to improve its health and safety record, or risk losing its operating licence.

The Guardian reported that an internal survey had raised widespread concerns about staff lacking the “resources to work safely”. The facility is now undergoing a major reorganisation, but a Porton spokesperson stressed to me that “any changes will protect and enhance its critical functions” – including working with government departments beyond the MoD.

A history of staff self-testing

My research with colleagues inside Porton Down found that between 1941 and 1989, staff took part in more than 1,300 tests of 78 different chemical and biological substances.

These included highly toxic nerve agents such as Tabun, and vomiting agents such as diphenylchlorarsine and sulphur mustard. In the later decades, staff self-testing focused on pre-emptive therapies for nerve agent attacks, using drugs such as Pralidoxime.

Other historical accounts suggest Porton scientists were given great latitude to develop experiments – and join in with them too. One long-term staff member, Mark Ainsworth, described testing a new piece of equipment in the wound ballistics laboratory. Working in it was “heroic”, he wrote in 1976, as the machine would “charge itself up to 300,000 volts, then discharge itself randomly, turning [the testers] into nervous wrecks”.

In an echo of the recent whistleblower complaints, Ainsworth also revealed that he “swore at the management for not being more generous with staff deployment”.

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Read more:
Inside Porton Down: what I learned during three years at the UK’s most secretive chemical weapons laboratory

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During the cold war era, Porton scientists developed troop protection including nuclear, biological and chemical (NBC) suits, respirators, and the triple-therapy “combo pen” for treating exposure to potentially deadly nerve agents.

These scientists would have been shocked to find products stemming from their research being used decades later, in March 2018, on civilian shoppers just a few miles down the road. Porton Down was a key part of the emergency response to a chemical weapons attack on UK soil when Novichok was used to try to kill former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter at their home in Salisbury.

Despite the aggressive toxicity of this nerve agent, neither died – partly thanks to Porton Down expertise that was shared with the emergency and health services involved in their care.

Three months later, however, another Salisbury resident, Dawn Sturgess, died after spraying herself with Novichok hidden in a discarded perfume bottle. Her partner Charlie Rowley was also exposed to the nerve agent, but survived.

Biosecurity risks

Insights into the secretive work carried out at Porton Down also come when its scientists’ work is published in academic literature. DSTL senior fellow Tim Atkins, for example, is among researchers leading the global response to Q fever and melioidosis – two potentially deadly bacterial diseases.

Porton also conducts research into the continuing response to COVID and other highly infectious pathogens such as Yersinia pestis (the bacterium that causes plague) and Ebola virus. The highest levels of biosecurity are therefore required to prevent outbreaks of disease against which the public would not be protected.

My experience of working inside Porton’s secure area between 2002 and 2008 was that entry to, and passage around, the site was strictly controlled. Machine gun-armed MoD police were stationed at the facility’s outer entry points and also guarded the secure inner area.

We were investigating risk of cancer and mortality in the approximately 20,000 service personnel who took part in tests at Porton Down between 1945 and 1989. While we found a small increased risk of mortality, it could not be attributed directly to Porton attendance. The last documented case of staff self-testing, in June 29 1984, involved 7-methoxy cycloheptatriene, a non-corrosive “irritant compound”.

One former senior staff member I spoke to recalled working at Porton as “stimulating” and “fun”, partly because of the freedom scientists were afforded to innovate. Such freedom may be a thing of the past – but the work inside this top-secret British laboratory remains as important to national security as ever.

According to the Porton Down spokesperson: “Our people remain the bedrock of DSTL, and their dedication has ensured that our performance this year is better than last … Through the largest reforms to defence in more than 50 years, we are strengthening our ability to anticipate and respond to evolving threats, including increasing our safety standard.”

Thomas Keegan has in the past worked on research into Porton Down with funding from the UK Medical Research Council..

– ref. Why are safety concerns being raised inside Porton Down, Britain’s nerve centre of chemical and biological research? – https://theconversation.com/why-are-safety-concerns-being-raised-inside-porton-down-britains-nerve-centre-of-chemical-and-biological-research-274908

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Michael Woods, Professor of Human Geography, Aberystwyth University

Nigel Farage has announced Reform UK’s first policy pledge of the Welsh election campaign in May: to scrap the default urban speed limit of 20mph introduced by the Labour Welsh government in 2023.

Like the Welsh Conservatives, who are also committed to reversing the legislation, Reform UK have identified frustration with the 20mph limit in Wales as a widespread and emotive issue that it hopes will help to propel the party to seat gains in the election. It is currently second in the polls, behind the centre-left Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru.

Reform said it will scrap the “blanket approach” to the speed limit, but would still have it around schools and hospitals. Welsh Labour have also said that some roads will return to 30mph under its plans.

Meanwhile, the Wales Green party leader Anthony Slaughter suggested that the party could push for extensions to 20mph coverage in local government, speaking to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme in January.

Polling by More in Common shows that the 20mph limit is the best known of the current Welsh government’s policies, with 90% of respondents confirming awareness, but also the second most unpopular. Some 55% of people polled considered that the change reflected negatively on Welsh Labour, compared with 21% who viewed it positively.

Yet, for others the 20mph limit is a flagship achievement. Lee Walters, the former transport minister who introduced the legislation, has admitted mistakes in the way it was introduced, but told BBC Wales: “The data and evidence shows that it will save lives, and in time it will settle down.”

The history of 20mph limits

The legislation reduced the default speed limit on so-called “restricted roads” in Wales (essentially roads in built-up areas) from 30mph to 20mph.

Part of the aim was to reduce the number of collisions and injuries from road collisions (as well as the cost to the National Health Service of treating these casualties), encouraging walking and cycling, and improving health and wellbeing.

As elsewhere in Britain, 20mph zones already existed in high-risk sites such as outside schools. Exceptions also applied to the 20mph default, with local authorities identifying roads where a 30mph limit would remain.

Overall, the 20mph limit currently applies to 37% of the road network in Wales. The policy featured in both the Labour and Plaid Cymru manifestos for the 2021 Senedd (Welsh parliament) election. It was also supported by the sole Liberal Democrat Senedd member, when introduced.

Conservative Senedd members voted against the legislation. The measure was controversial, with noisy opposition from sections of the public.

A petition to repeal the law attracted 469,571 signatures and new 20mph road signs were defaced in many parts of Wales.

There was widespread media coverage describing confusion over the speed limit and claiming negative effects on bus timetables, tourism and businesses.

A lack of consistent polling makes it difficult to track public opinion on the issue. Polls in October 2023 and July 2024 recorded 54% and 72% of Welsh voters opposed to the 20mph limit respectively, but no more recent poll has directly asked about the policy.

However, a softening of attitudes over time was identified by an analysis of posts on the social media platform X at implementation in September 2023 and six months later. Not only did comments become less negative towards the change, but the content also evolved. Right after implementation, tweets focused on politics, especially criticisms of Welsh government.

Six months later, discussion shifted toward everyday impact: improved safety around schools and residential streets, benefits for pedestrians and cyclists and urban mobility such as buses and traffic flow. Although political criticism remained, misinformation decreased and conversation became more grounded in lived experience, with safety, especially for children and communities, more prominent.

Psychologists refer to this movement as the Goodwin Curve: when behaviour people are anxious about doesn’t materialise, their attitudes soften and they become more accepting of policy change.

Early reports on the impact of the 20mph speed limit were anecdotal. More than two years after implementation, however, there is a growing body of objective evidence on its effects, especially around speed and collision data. The most recent figures show that average speeds for road traffic in Wales have fallen by 3.3 mph.

Relatedly, there has been a marked reduction in both collisions and casualties on roads where the speed limit changed from 30mph to 20mph. In 2024, the first full year after the change, collisions on 20mph and 30mph roads combined were down 23.5% compared with 2022, and casualties were down by 25.8%.

Evidence of environmental and social impacts is less conclusive. Early monitoring shows no material change in air quality (NO₂, PM₁₀ or PM₂.₅) in pilot areas up to April 2024, and analysis of CO₂ emissions is still ongoing. Impacts on walking and cycling also remain unclear, as post-implementation active travel data has not yet been reported.

Speed and the Senedd

So, why are speed limits back on the election agenda? Reform and the Conservatives both cite the cost of the policy, estimated at £32 million. Yet, as journalist Will Hayward points out, this spend has already happened and returning to 30mph would also be expensive.

The significance of 20mph to Reform and the Conservatives is about setting the tone of the election. It is an issue that speaks to the continuing scepticism of some of the Welsh electorate towards devolution.

What’s more, the issue encapsulates different visions for Welsh society. For the rightwing parties, opposition to the 20mph limit reflects a championing of individualism and “common sense” against the perceived intrusive paternalism of the left. As Farage told journalists in Newport: “It’s an example of government saying we know what is best for you, and you must comply with us.”

Reform UK has targeted car drivers as a potential voting base before. Reform-led councils in England have vowed to dismantle low-traffic neighbourhoods, for instance, even in areas that didn’t actually have them.

For some leftwing politicians, on the other hand, the 20mph speed limit is emblematic of a devolved Welsh government taking bold, pioneering action for health and environmental wellbeing. Reductions both in collisions and in motor insurance premiums could be presented as evidence of delivering benefits to Welsh people.

Labour and Plaid Cymru are unlikely to want the 20mph speed limit to be a major topic in the election, and would prefer to focus on issues around jobs, education, health care and public transport. Whether they can achieve a swing to those issues as the primary topic of discussion will be down to the public’s interest, and possibly media coverage.

Michael Woods receives funding from UKRI. He is a member of the Liberal Democrats.

Charles Musselwhite received funding from Health & Care Research Wales. Charles Musselwhite is currently Chair of the Transport Studies Research Group and a Vice Chair of the Transport and Health Science Group.

– ref. Why has the 20mph limit become such a political issue in the Welsh election? – https://theconversation.com/why-has-the-20mph-limit-become-such-a-political-issue-in-the-welsh-election-275360

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Martin Graff, Senior Lecturer in Psychology of Relationships, University of South Wales

As Valentine’s Day approaches, restaurant bookings fill up and couples exchange cards, flowers and carefully chosen gifts. For some, it’s a day of closeness and connection. For others, it can bring anxiety, disappointment or emotional distance.

These different reactions may feel deeply personal. But in terms of psychology, they may reflect something much deeper – how we learned to attach to other people in childhood.

Attachment theory offers a powerful way of understanding why romantic relationships unfold the way they do, and why partners can sometimes feel emotionally mismatched. Developed over decades of research, it suggests that our earliest experiences of care shape how safe, connected or vulnerable we feel in adult love.

Attachment theory was first proposed by the British psychiatrist John Bowlby, who argued that people are biologically wired to form close emotional bonds with their caregivers. These early attachments help infants feel protected and teach them what to expect from relationships.

Later, Canadian developmental psychologist Mary Ainsworth expanded this work through studies observing how infants responded to separation and reunion. She found that children develop different attachment patterns depending on how consistently their caregivers meet their emotional needs.

In simple terms, attachment theory suggests that early relationships create internal “templates” for connection. These influence whether we see others as trustworthy, how we cope with emotional stress and how comfortable we feel with closeness. These are patterns that often persist into adulthood.

Types of attachment

There are four attachment styles, which exist on a spectrum rather than as fixed categories.

People with a secure attachment style tend to feel comfortable with intimacy and independence. They usually trust their partners, communicate openly and can rely on others without fear of losing themselves.

Those with anxious attachment often crave closeness but worry about abandonment. They may seek reassurance, overthink interactions, or become preoccupied with their partner’s availability.

People with avoidant attachment place a high value on self-reliance and may feel uncomfortable with emotional dependence. They can struggle with intimacy and may withdraw when relationships become intense.

A smaller group show disorganised attachment. This is marked by conflicting desires for closeness and distance, often linked to early experiences of instability.

Most people don’t fit neatly into a single category.

How attachment shows up in adult relationships

Research suggests these attachment styles continue to shape how we relate to romantic partners. Securely attached people are more likely to describe their relationships as trusting, supportive and emotionally satisfying.

By contrast, anxious attachment is associated with fears of rejection and heightened emotional sensitivity, while avoidant attachment is linked to discomfort with closeness and difficulty relying on others. Some people oscillate between these responses, experiencing relationships as both comforting and painful.

These patterns help explain familiar dynamics, such as why one partner wants to resolve conflict immediately while the other needs space, and why some people fall in love quickly while others struggle to commit. Much of this happens unconsciously, driven by expectations formed long before adulthood.

The question of whether or not attachment styles can change over time is a tricky one. They may not be fixed for life. But they may also be determined more by the social trends of the day, rather than genuine changes in attachment.

However, a 2019 study attempted to investigate whether attachment style changes across the lifespan. It found that while attachment style is generally constant, it may also be affected by our relationships and the challenges we face at different stages of our lives.

So, both anxious and avoidant attachment tend to be higher in adolescence and young adulthood, decreasing into middle and old age, at a time when we are more confident perhaps that relationships will sustain. The researchers also found that across the lifespan, being in a close relationship tended to correspond with low scores on avoidant and anxious attachment.

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Read more:
Limerence: why some people experience intense infatuation that feels like love, and how it affects them

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Valentine’s Day is designed to amplify romance. But how much of this is determined by attachment style? One study has shown that those who are less avoidant tend to report higher relationship satisfaction on Valentine’s Day, while feelings of closeness and dependence can strengthen relationships during moments like these.

For people with anxious or avoidant tendencies, however, the day can highlight emotional mismatches. For example, one partner seeks reassurance, while the other feels overwhelmed by expectations.

While attachment anxiety and avoidance are linked to lower relationship satisfaction, they are not life sentences. Attachment styles are learned, which means they can also be reshaped. Understanding attachment helps frame these moments not as personal failings, but as reflections of deeper emotional patterns shaped by upbringing and experience.

This Valentine’s Day, alongside cards and chocolates, there is another gift worth considering – curiosity about how you learned to love. Recognising your own attachment patterns, and those of your partner, can offer compassion, clarity and a pathway towards more secure relationships.

Martin Graff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Valentine’s Day won’t fix your relationship – but attachment theory might explain it – https://theconversation.com/valentines-day-wont-fix-your-relationship-but-attachment-theory-might-explain-it-275115

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Henry Somers-Hall, Professor of Philosophy, Royal Holloway, University of London

Let’s begin with a story from the beginnings of western philosophy that doesn’t sit well with existentialist thought.

In Plato’s Symposium, a character called Aristophanes gives an account of love. He tells us that human beings originally had doubled bodies, with two heads, four arms and four legs. As a punishment for threatening the gods, however, Zeus cut each of them in half.

Now, these half humans, with just one head and one pair of arms and legs, find themselves adrift in the world, searching for the other half of themselves that would make them whole.

This, for Aristophanes, is the origin of love – the desire to return to a lost unity and to become whole. Why this story appeals to us is that it captures our intuition that love is destiny, and that there is someone out there who will take away our feeling of incompleteness.

For the existentialist, however, this feeling of incompleteness points to a fundamental truth about being human. For them, we are this tension. We are thrown into the world we haven’t chosen, but we are still responsible for the sense we make of our lives. This is what the existentialists mean by the slogan: existence precedes essence – there’s no script of our lives.

We become who we are through what we do, in a world defined by contingency and transience. Aristophanes here gives us the comforting illusion that there is some essence or meaning to our lives given before we exist – that there is someone out there who will resolve the tensions of being human by making us whole, if only we can find them.

For the existentialist, stories like Aristophanes’ cover over irresolvable tensions with being human rather than solving them. Think about the idea of finding “the one”. For the existentialist, behind this project is really one of putting the script back into our lives. Love proves that our lives have meaning.

If the aim of love, then, is to resolve our own feelings of anxiety at being cast adrift in a world, then we’re unlikely to really connect with another person. Rather, what will be important about them will be the role they play in our life.

Think about our desire to be the centre of someone else’s world. For existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, this is less about them than it is about the place they give us in their lives: their love for us becomes a proof that our own life has meaning. From here, we ask for what our lover cannot in good faith give us – the certainty that we will occupy that place: “you’ll always love me, won’t you?”

It sounds as if love is not so much a relationship, but a project we use to insulate ourselves from our own fears. It lets us believe the meaning of our lives comes from the outside while ensuring that we stay safely on the inside.

Stepping back from love itself, we can see another tension, however.

A more positive possibility for love

When we think of Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, whose lifelong partnership combined romantic and intellectual commitment with a deep insistence on personal freedom, it’s difficult not to see a model of romantic love.

At the beginning of the second world war, Sartre wrote to de Beauvoir: “Never have I felt so forcefully that our lives have no meaning outside of our love, and that nothing changes that, neither separation, nor passions, nor the war. You said it was a victory for our morality, but it is just as much a victory for our love.”

There is here, then, a more positive possible account of love.

For Sartre, this possible positive love is not an attempt to resolve the tensions in what it is to be human. Rather, to love authentically is to love in full understanding of the tensions of time and freedom.

Love’s aim, on this account, is not to escape time, but to embrace it together. This means loving, in the moment, absolutely, while recognising that just as we can always disavow our past, this moment, in the future, will itself become another past that we may disavow.

Loving is, then, not using the ideal of love as a project to step out of time, to hide. Instead, it involves the recognition that being with another within time entails living with fragility and transience, and that what makes this love human is the possibility of change.

Rejecting love as an ideal, and the lover as a role to be played, allows us to see our lovers not simply as a foil for our own projects, but as another person, with all the complexity and singularity a human being contains. In this, we find ourselves outside of ourselves, exposed in a world where failure is always possible.

But with such exposure there is also the possibility of a genuine connection with another human being. As Søren Kierkegaard, the first existentialist, puts it, in love, we do not love the “other I”, but the “you”. Love, then, becomes the rejection of destiny for authenticity.

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Henry Somers-Hall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. An existentialist philosopher on why we should not let fear dictate love – https://theconversation.com/an-existentialist-philosopher-on-why-we-should-not-let-fear-dictate-love-275455

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jane Steventon, Course Leader, BA (Hons) Screenwriting; Deputy Course Leader & Senior Lecturer, BA (Hons) Film Production, University of Portsmouth

Water covers over 70% of our planet, so it’s no wonder that it flows through our storytelling. Biblical rain offered divine judgement either in the form of a blessing and rewards, or retribution and vengeance. In Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Feste the fool issued the melancholic refrain: “For the rain it raineth every day.” It reminded the audience of the persistence of suffering in life.

Filmmakers worldwide have revered the visual beauty and the metaphorical value of rain on screen, letting it augment many a classic scene, sequence or speech. Technically, rain intensifies mise-en-scène (the overall visual presentation on screen, combining set design, lighting, props and more): it catches backlight and renders air itself visible, creating depth and shimmer.

And as our global weather patterns undergo changes, media researchers have suggested that engagement with cinematic weather conditions like rain can allow for an “ecological meta-narrative” that connects humans (both on and offscreen) with their environment.

Whether depicting solitude, decay, adversity or romantic destined love, rain in movies emotes as much as a character would. Here are ten key moments where rain took a starring role in film – just perfect for watching on a wet day.

1. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

Few scenes invert bad weather more joyfully than Gene Kelly’s iconic number. After a night of salvaging their disastrous film project, The Duelling Cavalier, actor Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) realises that he has fallen for the bubbly singer Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds). On his ebullient walk home, a legendary song and dance number turns the perceived bad weather on its head with the cheerful refrain: “Come on with the rain, I’ve a smile on my face.”

Kelly reportedly performed the sequence while running a fever, and the scene’s exuberance reframes rain not as obstacle but as liberation. The uplifting choreography sees Kelly splashing through puddles that reflect streetlights, making the urban space of the set design feel elastic and alive.

2. Seven Samurai (1954)

Rain heightens the brutal physical clashes in filmmaker Akira Kurasawa’s Seven Samurai. As the Samurai face their final battle, the rain (which has been used throughout to add mood and tone) is as cruel and violent as any of the antagonists, amplifying the pressure with its muddy, disorientating and visceral presence in the conflict.

Kurosawa was meticulous about weather effects, using wind, dust and rain to choreograph movement within the frame. The downpour turns the battlefield into sludge, erasing clear footing and underscoring the film’s meditation on chaos, class struggle and the cost of collective defence.

3. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)

The final reunion scene of Breakfast at Tiffany’s raises the emotional stakes with its unrelenting rain. In a taxi to the airport, Holly Golightly, played by Audrey Hepburn, tries to run away and abandon her emotional commitments to struggling writer Paul Varjak (George Peppard) and the stray cat she’s adopted.

After an incensed Paul watches her throw the cat out into the rain, he exits, determined to rescue the soggy feline. As she tearfully joins him, her character arc is complete. The storm forces Holly quite literally to stop running, confronting the emotional commitments she has tried to evade.

4. Network (1976)

In Network, a New York rainstorm provides the ultimate backdrop for anchorman Howard Beal’s (Peter Finch) unhinged and rain-drenched live rant. The drumming of rain against studio windows suggests a world outside the sealed, commodified space of television as, in a renowned monologue, he berates the news channel’s manipulation and society’s disintegration with the famous line: “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this any more.”

5. Point Break (1991)

In Point Blank, rookie FBI agent Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves) confronts Bodhi, a bank-robbing surfer played by Patrick Swayze, in the rain. The weather ultimately enables him to evade capture by allowing him to ride one last big wave; something both know he will never survive.

Here, rain acts as a redemptive force. Bodhi seeks exoneration through the only thing he respects – nature.

6. The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

In prison drama The Shawshank Redemption, Andy’s (Tim Robbins) Raquel-Welch cell poster hides a hidden escape shaft, years in the making while he endured time for a crime he didn’t commit.

Wading through a sewer tunnel he finally emerges to a torrential downpour, holding out his arms and facing the heavens in a symbolic act of cleansing, salvation and freedom. Rain here washes away not guilt, but injustice.

7. Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)

Rain doesn’t always have to represent high drama. In the Richard Curtis-penned film Four Weddings and a Funeral, American Carrie’s (Andie MacDowall) famously cheesy line, “Is it still raining, I hadn’t noticed?” puts the seal on her romance with bumbling but charming British Charles (Hugh Grant) and secures the star-crossed lovers a future.

The actors were reportedly freezing during the rain rigged shoot. Rigs often rely on using cold water and multiple takes.

8. Magnolia (2000)

Magnolia’s frenzied collective experience of a thunderstorm of frogs will forever capture the imagination of the more surreally minded. In this scene, rain symbolises the universal chaos of life and binds disparate characters into a shared reckoning.

9. The Notebook (2004)

The physical brutality of heavy rain underscores heartbreak, loss and forgiveness in decades-spanning The Notebook as Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams’ separated lovers Noah and Allie reunite after family has dictated their separation.

A sweepingly romantic scene in a sleeper hit turned cult favourite, the downpour legitimises emotional excess – tears indistinguishable from rain.

10. Blade Runner (1982)

The demand of three of the most challenging filming elements – smoke, night shoots and rain – had the crew of Ridley Scott’s futuristic dystopian Blade Runner christen the film “Blood Runner” as 50 nights of filming in constant artificial rain took a physical, mental and logistical toll.

Whether depicting disorder or harmony, life-enhancing joy or unprecedented destruction, rain remains a valuable visual medium and narrative tool for filmmakers.

What’s your favourite rain scene in cinematic history? Let us know in the comments below.

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Jane Steventon does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Ten classic films that used rain to transform a scene – https://theconversation.com/ten-classic-films-that-used-rain-to-transform-a-scene-275705