Ken Loach

Biography

Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936; Nuneaton) is a British film director, screenwriter and producer. His socially critical directing style is 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.

Most Known For

Question Time

as Self - Panellist

Square

as Self

Faut Voir - L'hebdo cinéma

as Self - Guest

The Story of Film: An Odyssey

as Self

Cannes Uncut

as Self

Censoring Palestine

as Self

John Bishop: In Conversation with...

as Self

Reel Britannia

as Self

Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius

as Self

A Special Day

as Self

Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach

as Self - Film Director

Water and Sugar – Carlo Di Palma: The Colours of Life

as Self

We Are Many

as Self

Great Directors

as Self

40 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight

as Self

Os Maus Patriotas

as HIMSELF

Film: The Living Record of Our Memory

as Self

The Legend of the Palme d’Or Continues

as Self

Carry On Ken

Carry On Ken