Legacy Of Hope

Oprah Winfrey returns to acting in a remarkable real-life story.

- Adam Tanswell, Richard Mcclure and Judy Ewens

She’s known as the world’s most famous talk-show host, but Oprah Winfrey is also an accomplished actress, appearing in such acclaimed movies as The Color Purple, The Butler and Selma.

This week, the 63-year-old stars in HBO’s adaptation of Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 non-fiction book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks on Sky Atlantic.

The drama centres on the real-life story of Henrietta Lacks, a Baltimore mother-of-five who died of cervical cancer, age 31, in 1951. Without her knowledge, Henrietta’s tumour cells were harvested by medical researchers, and found to be astonishingly ‘immortal’, replicating themselves.