Joyce died in 2003 but it took three years for her decomposed and unrecognizable remains to be found in her bedsitter. It's not only the sad and tragic story of Joyce's final years, but also about alienation, family and neighbors. Sadly Joyce put her bank manager down as the next-of-kin when she was at the hospital. Also one of Joyce's final jobs was working as a cleaner, and the interviewees had difficulty imagining her doing this work. Still, cleaning is an honorable job and someone had to do it I guess.

Zawe Ashton played Joyce Vincent as an adult, and Alix Luka-Cain played Joyce Vincent as a girl.

Carol Morley, who directed this unforgettable documentary, wrote about her experiences in https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/09/joyce-vincent-death- mystery-documentary

Dreams of a Life is haunting and a sharp commentary about the value of life.

One incredibly sorrowful moment was at the end when Martin, Joyce's ex-boyfriend, started crying.

The final scene was special. It featured a brief clip of Nelson Mandela tribute concert at Wembley in 1990, addressing musicians, and there was Joyce amongst the select few in the cheering crowd, watched by millions worldwide.

I found this half docudrama film listed in the Radio Times, being broadcast on television, it sounded like an unbelievable real life story, and with it having good reviews from critics I was definitely up for it. Basically the film tells the story of British 38-year-old Joyce Vincent (played by Fresh Meat's Zawe Ashton in imagined reconstructions),a beautiful, popular woman who was nonetheless disconnected and lonely. Joyce died in her bedsit, in Wood Green, North London, in December 2003, her death went unnoticed, neither her family, friends or work colleagues were aware, her body was not discovered for three years, on January 25th 2006, surrounded by wrapped but undelivered Christmas presents. The neighbours assumed that the flat was unoccupied, the odour of decomposing body tissue was attributed to nearby waste bins, the flat's windows did not allow direct sight into the accommodation, and drug addicts frequented the area, this may explain why no one questioned the constant noise from the television, it was bailiffs that broke in to Joyce's flat and found her dead. Joyce's body was badly decomposed to conduct a full post-mortem, she was identified from dental records, the cause of death was believed to be caused by either an asthma attack or complications from a recent peptic ulcer. This film switches between constructed scenes of the last days and life of Joyce, and interviews of those who knew her, tracked down by investigating director Carol Morley, they describe her as beautiful, intelligent and socially active. During her life Joyce met figures such as Betty Wright, Gil Scott-Heron, Ben E. King and Nelson Mandela, she went to dinner with Stevie Wonder, and she was beginning a possible singing career, her song "Tell Me" is played in the end credits. Also starring Alix Luka-Cain as Young Joyce, Cornell John as Father and Neelam Bakshi as Mother. Ashton gives a believably subtle performance as the woman who many people who liked her but was nonetheless lonesome, the highlights are the imagined sequence of Joyce singing along to "My Smile is Just a Frown (Turned Upside Down)" by Carolyn Crawford, and the real Vincent's voice in the moving song at the end, we will never know what happened to Joyce Vincent and how she went undiscovered for so long, but this film is a haunting and sad but ultimately interesting drama- documentary. Good!

DREAMS OF A LIFE is a feature length 2011 docu-drama by filmmaker Carol Morley that tells the true story of Joyce Carol Vincent, a woman who died in her flat in London around 2003 and wasn't found until more than three years later. The story itself is a great one, one of the most tragic tales you could imagine and a true reflection on the careless nature of modern society, but DREAMS OF A LIFE drops the ball along the way.

Morley messes up by focusing way too much on recreating Vincent's brief life as a celebration instead of really getting to the heart of the manner of her death. After all, it's the unusual circumstances surrounding the death that makes this such a good story, but we learn next to nothing about it. Just how could somebody die in the heart of a heaving metropolis, with the TV on no less, and nobody realise for three years?

Instead, there are endless bite-sized interviews with friends who knew here, and a good half an hour of excruciating singing as Morley explores Vincent's passion for music. All of this needed to be jettisoned and replaced with an investigative journalist doing a voice-over and exploring the mysteries that remain unsolved to date.