Ken Loach

Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His films, which commentators consider socially aware and to display socialist ideals, are themed around issues such as poverty (Poor Cow, 1967), homelessness (Cathy Come Home, 1966), and labour rights (Riff-Raff, 1991, and The Navigators, 2001).

Loach's film Kes (1969) was voted the seventh greatest British film of the 20th century in a poll by the British Film Institute. Two of his films, The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) and I, Daniel Blake (2016), received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making him one of only nine filmmakers to win the award twice. Loach also holds the record for most films in the main competition at Cannes, with fifteen films.

1969–1987

 * Kes is really about the colossal wastages of kids, whose lives and abilities are written off before they're even in their teens. We chose to make it in Barnsley, we chose a Secondary modern school on a new estate that's becoming shabby. But it could have been one of hundreds of schools or estates. We didn't happen to unearth one child star, there were several kids in that one school who could have done the main part, [Billy Casper].
 * From an interview, as cited in "Content with content", The Guardian (30 June 1969), p. 6


 * I don't think people exist outside of their social situation. You can't abstract people from their environment. It always baffles me when people ask why I don't direct a comedy or a thriller. I think they would be much more artificial fields in which to work. The great expanse of people is really rather interesting.
 * You can't treat mental health on an assembly line, which is the way it is now organised.
 * From an interview, as cited in "Garnett and Loach on the NHS", Evening Standard (27 November 1971), p. 13
 * It was a joint interview with Loach and Tony Garnett, his regular producer in the early years of his career. The feature film Family Life was then newly released.

That's on a personal level. On a different level I find Nat's position in the film industry very disturbing. He has too much control over it. Do you know how he works? Every morning he studies the box office receipts and sees which films are making money and concentrates on those. So, slowly, the spectrum is becoming narrower and narrower.
 * [On film executive Nat Cohen, then responsible (according to his rivals) for about 50% of film production in the UK] I found Nat very kind and helpful. [...] [A] lot of things went wrong in those films and I realise it now. I saw this but he didn't say a word and allowed me to finish.
 * From an interview as cited in "Nat King Cohen", The Guardian (17 November 1973), p. 7
 * Cohen's company Anglo-Amalgamated was involved in the production of Loach's films Poor Cow (1967) and (by then known as Anglo-EMI) Family Life (1971). An effective distribution/exhibition duopoly existed in the UK between the film divisions of EMI and the Rank Organisation at this time.


 * [Screenings of Loach's work suffered during this period] You are only part of a process of communication with a lot of people who have no chance to be heard at all. [...] The suppression of that is much more important than the problems of individual filmmakers.
 * From an interview, as cited in "Shoulder to Shoulder", The Observer (22 March 1987), p. 23
 * The article begins with a comment Loach uses the "second person singular" when referring to himself. The article concerns Fatherland (US: Singing the Blues in Red, 1986), a collaboration with the dramatist/screenwriter Trevor Griffiths.

1989–2014
Nonsense. It was clearly a response to the massive campaign mounted by Zionist groups in the weeks before the production. The unprincipled, mendacious and consciously distorting articles, the meetings between Zionist campaigners and members of the Royal Court board, the threats about the future of the Court this was the pressure that caused Stafford-Clark to cave in. Or is he now saying that [the] orchestrated furore was just a coincidence? Remember, his objection was not to the acting or direction, but to the text. With a few honourable exceptions, the establishment liberals, who rightly support Salman Rushdie, ignored the political censorship on their own doorstep. Ken Loach. London
 * MAX STAFFORD-CLARK claims that the decision to ban Perdition from the Royal Court was his alone (Letters, March 3).
 * Perdition was stopped because it criticised Zionist leaders in Budapest for co-operating with the Nazis in sending half a million Jews to the camps. Today, we are wary of criticising Israel, because of our feelings of horror and guilt at the atrocities committed against the Jews. If the Hungarian incident is examined, that inhibition may be lessened.
 * Letters, The Guardian (8 March 1989), p. 22
 * The Ken Loach-directed production of Perdition a play by Jim Allen, was cancelled 36 hours before the first performance. Historian Martin Gilbert told The Sunday Times in 1987: "In reality there are inaccuracies on almost every page of the script; not only errors of fact, but innuendoes and allegations against thousands of Jews unable to defend themselves because they were murdered ... by the very people with whom, the script insists they were in deliberate and sinister collusion."

The quality of political discussion was higher. People understood die analysis even if they disagreed with it.
 * [On politics in the 1960s] There was a feeling that there was a great possibility of political change. Obviously, no one knew in what form it would come, but there was a sense that the working class was getting politically conscious, particularly those involved in occupations and industrial disputes.
 * [On where he fits on the left] I would have thought if you want to align yourself to any left current, the one to follow would be the one that fought Stalinism at the outset, and that was the left opposition and [Leon] Trotsky. So I think that socialist current is the one I care to be identified with.
 * Interview with Simon Hattenstone (First extract)       and (Second extract) from "Kitchen sink drama", The Guardian: Weekend (31 October 1998), p. 36-40, 39-40
 * The archive saves erroneously indicate different pages.


 * I turned down the OBE because it's not a club you want to join when you look at the villains who've got it.
 * From an interview in the Radio Times as cited in "Director Loach slams TV news" BBC News (13 March 2001)


 * [N]othing has been a greater instigator of antisemitism than the self-proclaimed Jewish state itself... Until we deal with that, until that is acknowledged, then racism, I'm afraid, will be with us.
 * If there has been a rise [in antisemitism in Europe] I am not surprised. In fact, it is perfectly understandable because Israel feeds feelings of antisemitism.
 * Comments in Brussels at the establishment of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine (March 2009), as cited in "A film director's tunnel vision" The Jewish Chronicle (26 March 2009)


 * We had won the war together [...] Together we could win the peace. If we could collectively plan to wage military campaigns, could we not plan to build houses, create a health service and make goods needed for reconstruction? The spirit of the age was to be our brother's and our sister's keeper.
 * People talk about Thatcherism all the time [...] I felt it was important to record the memories of those almost written out of history who upheld the spirit of '45. Today, the market penetrates everywhere. It's time to put back on the agenda the importance of public ownership and public good, the value of working together collaboratively, not in competition.
 * If you have a society where a large section believe they are not part of the political discourse, that is a situation for trouble. The Labour election of 1945 was a tremendous victory for democratic ownership of the economy. We need to remember and learn from the lessons.
 * Quoted in an article by Yvonne Roberts "The Spirit of '45: where did it go?" The Observer (27 March 2013)
 * The Spirit of '45, Loach's documentary film, was released later in March 2013. The Labour government of prime minister Clement Attlee was elected in 1945.

History suggests it cannot. The high-water mark of 1945 is long gone. The many great achievements of that government have largely been dismantled, either with the collusion of Labour or directly by the party when it has been in power.
 * Labour's rhetoric may be softer than the Tories', but its fundamental stance is limited by the same imperative: profit comes before all else. Can the Labour party be reclaimed? Or, rather, made anew into one that will represent the interests of the people?
 * The Labour party is part of the problem, not the solution. The Greens have many admirable policies, but we look in vain for a thoroughgoing analysis for fundamental change. We need a new voice, a new movement – a new party.
 * Left Unity was formed a few months ago to work towards such co-operation. The task is considerable. We are used to working and campaigning within our own small organisations. The proliferation of radical newspapers is witness to that. But the need is urgent. If we don't act together, the poverty, exploitation and alienation will get worse.
 * "Labour is part of the problem, not the solution" The Guardian (27 March 2014)

2017–2023
Loach: I think history is for us all to discuss, wouldn't you? Coburn: Say that again, sorry, I missed that. Loach: History is for all of us to discuss. All history is our common heritage to discuss and analyze. The founding of the state of Israel, for example, based on ethnic cleansing is there for us all to discuss. The role of Israel now is there for us to discuss. So don't try to subvert that by false stories of anti-Semitism.
 * [On antisemitism in the Labour Party] It's funny these stories suddenly appeared when Jeremy Corbyn became leader, isn't it?
 * Jo Coburn: There was a fringe meeting yesterday that we talked about at the beginning of the show where there was a discussion about the Holocaust, did it happen or didn't it ... would you say that was unacceptable?
 * Passages from a Daily Politics (BBC) interview during the 2017 Labour Party conference as cited in "This BBC Interview Perfectly Illustrates Britain's Left-Wing Anti-Semitism Problem" Tablet (27 September 2017)
 * The Israeli-American writer Miko Peled was reported to have said at a conference fringe meeting: "This is about free speech, the freedom to criticise and to discuss every issue, whether it's the Holocaust: yes or no, Palestine, the liberation, the whole spectrum. There should be no limits on the discussion." In a letter to The Guardian, Loach rejected accusations he considered it "acceptable to question the reality of the Holocaust".

If they've been going to the demonstration against him outside Westminster... those are the ones we need to kick out.
 * Unless we get Labour MPs who believe in that manifesto last year we won't get in power.
 * You cannot work with people who have come to undermine the biggest challenge we've had - we've never had a leader like Corbyn before in the whole history of the Labour Party ... and that's why the dirty tricks are going to come out.
 * At a speech delivered at a Labour Party meeting in Bristol cited in "Loach: Labour MPs who protested against antisemitism should be 'kicked out'" The Jewish Chronicle (11 April 2018)
 * Loach was referring to the Enough is Enough protest (attended by about 30 Labour MPs) in Parliament Square, London on 26 March 2018 in response to the antisemitism crisis in the Labour Party. Loach told the Daily Mail his earlier quotes "do not reflect my position", but plans for Loach to make further Labour Party party political broadcasts were abandoned.

Well, I am proud to stand with the good friends and comrades victimised by the purge. There is indeed a witch-hunt. Starmer and his clique will never lead a party of the people. We are many, they are few. Solidarity.
 * Labour HQ finally decided I'm not fit to be a member of their party, as I will not disown those already expelled.
 * Twitter statement over multiple tweets announcing his expulsion from the Labour Party, as cited in "Ken Loach: Filmmaker kicked out of Labour Party 'for supporting expelled members'", Sky News (14 August 2023)

It's based on political determination to do a number of things, to remove people from the left, to protect the state of Israel, which many people, many Jewish people in the Labour Party, oppose, oppose this campaign.
 * The whole antisemitism issue has been substantially revealed as a campaign that is not based on fact.
 * "Ken Loach claims antisemitism is being used to oust Labour left politicians" PA News Agency as reproduced by Yahoo! News (3 June 2023).
 * North of Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll had been blocked from running as Labour's candidate for Mayor of the North East after a joint "In Conversation" event” with Loach because of his expulsion from the Labour party. Driscoll had refused to apologise for his actions.

About Loach

 * In alphabetical order by author or source within chronological sections.

1987–1994

 * If Loach could make a film without a camera he would. He wants the actors to just be themselves so that everything looks as though it has just happened.
 * From an interview with Trevor Griffiths for "Shoulder to Shoulder", The Observer (22 March 1987), p. 23
 * Article concerns the Griffiths and Loach theatrical film collaboration Fatherland (US: Singing the Blues in Red, 1986).

"Maybe it was just because they were shot in eastern Europe in black and white, but you felt that the people were very proletarian. It was a bit like saying working-class people are worthy subjects of a film. There wasn't the sense that you needed vast production values, you didn't have to wind everything up with a lot of art direction or a lot of music; you just had to have confidence in the people front of the camera." But he stresses that while a professional's training can be a handicap, equally there are parts usually when they are precisely scripted and information has to be revealed in a certain way that could not be handled by non-actors. Loach has used many good non-professionals, but Crissy Rock is phenomenal. He says he auditioned 300 people for the part, two-thirds professionals, but she was the best. Watching the film, you have to believe him.
 * Inspired by the Italian neo-realists, who also used non-professionals, Loach says that his biggest influence is probably the sixties Czech cinema of Jiri Menzel, Milos Forman and Ivan Passer. "It just allowed something to unfold and had a quality of observation: the sense of tuning, unhurried rhythm, framing of the shots, and relaxed humour." He also sensed a democracy in the film-making.
 * When Loach selects his actors, whether professional or not, there are certain givens. He will not cast against class: "You carry your class with you in how you talk, how you behave, how you pick up a fork. You can't really act it, and you can't act a dialect."
 * Simon Hattenstone "Rock Steady" The Guardian (29 September 1994), p. 36–37, 37
 * Ladybird, Ladybird is the film under discussion in the last paragraph.

"At that time, you were allowed about four days filming |with cumbersome 35mm equipment] just to show a car pulling up or driving away," says Loach. "So we used those four days to whizz round and shoot half the script with a hand-held 16mm camera - about 35 to 40 minutes of screen time." The remaining studio scenes were dubbed from tape on to film so that the whole thing could be collaged together in the cutting room, with Loach deploying all manner of neo-Godardian time leaps and wild-track effects.
 * [Sydney] Newman and [James] MacTaggart saw no problem with running a new wave of Paddy Chayefskyan problem plays out of the electronic studio, but [Tony] Garnett and Ken Loach were soon rejecting this whole classical notion of "the play"’. They had seen the future of television drama, and it was A bout de souffle mated with World in Action. While MacTaggart was away, they booked up as much off-base filming as they could for a television version of Nell Dunn's book, Up the Junction, a mouthy compendium of South London lower-class lore.
 * James Saynor "Imagined Communities" Sight & Sound (December 1993), p. 12, as reproduced on the Internet Archive website.
 * Up the Junction was first broadcast on BBC1 in The Wednesday Play series on 3 November 1965.


 * I'm a great friend of Ken's, and Perdition does not change that, [...] [b]ut when I think of the man who made Kes which tells us more movingly about the disinherited than any other film I've seen, I wonder what has happened. Poor Cow, Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home were all films of great humanity and were probably political films in their own way, but the compassion conquered all. He seems to be moving away from that and becoming more politically motivated and less interesting. It's a great pity.
 * From an interview with Michael Winner for "Shoulder to Shoulder", The Observer (22 March 1987), p. 23
 * Not theatrical feature films (though mainly shot on film in the conventional manner), Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home were episodes in BBC Television's Wednesday Play anthology series (in UK terminology at the time, it was a series of single plays). Loach was not involved in the commercial film version of Up the Junction which was released in 1968.

2016–2023

 * "The aim is to destabilise Jeremy's leadership," Loach said, apparently unaware that suggesting Jews make allegations about antisemitism for their political or personal benefit is, in fact, one of the oldest antisemitic tropes there is.
 * Hadley Freeman "If people don't know about the Holocaust, it's because they don’t really care" The Guardian (21 April 2018)
 * Following Loach's comments about the Enough is Enough protest cited above.


 * But Loach was not always a lefty – far from it. At school, he represented the Tories in a mock election. "I don’t think too much should be made of that," he says. I had assumed he was playing devil's advocate, or it was just a passing teenage whim, but no, he says: these were the values with which he was brought up. Loach's father was an electrician who became a foreman in his factory in Nuneaton – a classic working-class Tory, he says.
 * The family took the rightwing Daily Express, and Loach would read it cover to cover, never questioning its values. As far as he was concerned, it simply reflected the world. "I adopted the Tories like you adopt a team," he says, embarrassed. How long did he adopt them for? "Probably until I was 19, when I went into the RAF."
 * Simon Hattenstone "Ken Loach: 'If you’re not angry, what kind of person are you?'" The Guardian (15 October 2016)


 * I will not speak about Ken Loach because he's a man of love. He has been an extraordinary father, and is a compassionate, wonderful, loving, brilliant grandfather to three Jewish boys. ["Then Levey looks [interviewer Kate Maltby] straight in the eye"] But I will reiterate, as a rule of thumb, maybe don’t say antisemitic things, if you’re worried about that being a slur. It's probably best to keep shtoom. [...] If you’re worried about people continually calling you antisemitic, maybe don’t say antisemitic things?
 * Elliot Levey "Acting, antisemitism — and my father-in-law Ken Loach", The Sunday Times (3 December 2023)