Overview

Making groundbreaking dramas for the BBC's 'Wednesday Play' series in the 1960s, Ken Loach was one of the first to show life as it was really lived by many people. With the film Kes, the director established an international reputation. After falling on hard times in the 1980s, he then made a feature-film revival that was little short of remarkable, with masterpieces such as Land and Freedon, My Name is Joe, Carla's Song and Sweet Sixteen. Anthony Hayward's book shows how Loach's films have made folk heroes of both actors and their characters: Ricky Tomlinson taking his experiences of the building trade and its scams to Riff-Raff; David Bradley as the schoolboy consigned to a life down the pit in Kes, and Peter Mullan drawing on memories of his father's alcoholism in My Name is Joe. It also reveals the influence on Loach of a father who was fanatical about education, the socialist politics that drive his work, and the long-running collaborations with writers and producers such as Jim Allen, Barry Hines, Tony Garnett and Rebecca O'Brien.

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9780747574125

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Reviews

'A clear-headed and diligently researched biography, it benefits enormously from contributions from Loach himself ... It's hard to imagine how this perfectly pitched biography could be bettered' Film Review 'Hayward has amassed an impressive body of material, much of it direct from the horse's mouth' Guardian 'It's time Loach's output was considered as being about real people rather than abstract social issues, and so an accessible biography (rather than another academic essay) is welcome' Empire 'An eloquent insight into the work of Britain's finest and most courageous film director' John Pilger, New Statesman

Author Information

Anthony Hayward is a biographer and a regular contributor to the Independent.

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