... Charles McAleer Des Connaughton Shane Film on Four Rea Stephen Abigail's Party Mike Leigh Bleak Moments British television drama High Hopes British viewers ‘Oh, it's Beaujolais. Fantastic! Won’t be a sec, I’ll just pop it in the fridge’. Has any beverage in any work of art ever excited quite so...

...This chapter deals with Mike Leigh's film, High Hopes. Mike's need to create a stronger bond with his mother, after his father's death, informs one of the key character relationships in High Hopes. The caricatured characters in High Hopes were...

...This chapter illustrates Mike Leigh's feature film Life Is Sweet, an important development in Leigh's working life that came in 1989 when he formed the production company, Thin Man Films, with Simon Channing-Williams. For the company's first production, Leigh committed himself...

...This chapter illustrates how Mike Leigh returned to more recognisable territory for his film, All or Nothing. The opening shot of All or Nothing almost looked like a parody of his style and mood—except that no parody could so succinctly convey the humanity...

...This chapter summarises Mike Leigh's achievements. The success of Mike Leigh's film, Vera Drake was followed up by Leigh's triumphant return to the theatre, a medium in which he had not worked since 1993's It's a Great Big Shame! Through his unique methods, he has...

...This chapter draws attention to Mike Leigh's feature film, Secrets and Lies that proved to be his most popular film, winning the Palme d'Or and the International Critics' Prize at Cannes and receiving five Oscar nominations. This chapter draws attention to the fact that this film...

...This chapter draws attention to Mike Leigh's film, Career Girls, that focused on just two young women, Hannah and Annie, who used to be flat-mates when they were students in the mid-1980s and, having not seen each other for six years, spend a weekend together at Hannah's London...

...Mike Leigh may well be Britain's greatest living film director; his worldview has permeated our national consciousness. This book gives detailed readings of the nine feature films he has made for the cinema, as well as an overview of his work for television. Written with the co-operation of Leigh...

...This chapter opens with a general discussion on Mike Leigh, who is considered to be Britain's greatest film director and who has carved a unique niche in the film making industry. Among his recent films, Vera Drake was released thirty-four years since his debut feature. Since his...

...This chapter begins with the discussion about Mike Leigh's parents and explains how he inculcated a desire to direct films. As a child, Leigh was a keen cinemagoer, experiencing a traditional diet of British and Hollywood features, newsreels, cartoons, serials and slapstick shorts. Leigh describes...

...This chapter looks at Mike Leigh's first feature, where he, with his partner Blair in Autumn Productions, funded their first project with the help of the British Film Institute Production Board and Memorial Films. The film Bleak Moments lacked the robust comedy of his later works...

... Douglas Milligan Spike Berrington Elizabeth Clarke Alan Leland David Made in Britain Roth Tim Abigail's Party Burchill Julie 141 Cannes Film Festival Meantime Naked Life Is Sweet Mike Leigh verbal battering international recognition Nothing in the bittersweet tone or the precisely observed...

...This chapter illustrates that with the film Topsy-Turvy. Mike Leigh emerged from the closet, firmly declaring his long-standing delight in the comic operas of librettist William Schwenck Gilbert and composer Arthur Sullivan. The emergence was a spectacular one given both the film's...

...This chapter illustrates Mike Leigh's feature film Vera Drake, which was his second cinematic venture into period drama, and was set within living memory for a substantial proportion of a 2004 audience; and dealing with a subject about which it is virtually impossible to remain...