Ken Loach
Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936; Nuneaton) is a retired British film director, screenwriter and producer. His humanist values and socialist political views are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty (Poor Cow, 1967), homelessness (Cathy Come Home, 1966), and labour rights (Riff-Raff, 1991, and The Navigators, 2001). Kenneth Charles Loach was born on 17 June 1936 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, the son of Vivien (née Hamlin) and John Loach. He attended King Edward VI Grammar School and at the age of 19 went to serve in the Royal Air Force. He read law at St Peter's College, Oxford and graduated with a third-class degree. As a member of the Oxford University Experimental Theatre Club he directed an open-air production of Bartholomew Fair for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford, in 1959 (when he also took the role of the shady horse-dealer Dan Jordan Knockem). After Oxford, he began a career in the dramatic arts. 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.
Filmography · 61
Play for Today
1970 · Director
ITV Saturday Night Theatre
1969 · Director
Dispatches
1987 · Director
The Wednesday Play
1964 · Director
Z-Cars
1962 · Director
Modern Times
1995 · Director
I, Daniel Blake
2016 · Director
Sorry We Missed You
2019 · Director
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
2006 · Director
To Each His Own Cinema
2007 · Director
The Angels' Share
2012 · Director
Kes
1970 · Director
The Old Oak
2023 · Director
Hidden Agenda
1990 · Director
Days of Hope
1975 · Director
Jimmy's Hall
2014 · Director
Poor Cow
1967 · Director
Land and Freedom
1995 · Director
The Navigators
2001 · Director
Riff-Raff
1991 · Director
McLibel
2005 · Director
Looking for Eric
2009 · Director
September 11
2002 · Director
Ladybird Ladybird
1994 · Director
Bread and Roses
2000 · Director
Route Irish
2011 · Director
Ae Fond Kiss...
2004 · Director
Sweet Sixteen
2002 · Director
It's a Free World...
2007 · Director
My Name Is Joe
1998 · Director
Carla's Song
1996 · Director
Family Life
1971 · Director
Diary of a Young Man
1964 · Director
Raining Stones
1993 · Director
Fatherland
1986 · Director
Tickets
2005 · Director
Cathy Come Home
1966 · Director
The Spirit of '45
2013 · Director
The Coming Out Party
1965 · Director
The Big Flame
1969 · Director
The End of Arthur's Marriage
1965 · Director
Up the Junction
1965 · Director
The Price of Coal, Part 2: Back to Reality
1977 · Director
Which Side Are You On?
1985 · Director
The Golden Vision
1968 · Director
In Two Minds
1967 · Director
Three Clear Sundays
1965 · Director
Talk About Work
1971 · Director
Black Jack
1979 · Director
The Gamekeeper
1980 · Director
A Question of Leadership
1981 · Director
The Rank and File
1971 · Director
The Price of Coal, Part 1: Meet the People
1977 · Director
The Flickering Flame
1996 · Director
The Arthur Legend
1991 · Director
The View from the Woodpile
1989 · Director
Looks and Smiles
1981 · Director
In Conversation With Jeremy Corbyn
2016 · Director
End of the Battle... Not the End of the War
1985 · Director
The Save the Children Fund Film
1971 · Director
Time to Go
1989 · Director