Ken Loach
Known for: Directing
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
Film '72
Self
1971
Series
Question Time
Self - Panellist
1979
Series
Faut Voir - L'Hebdo cinéma
Self - Guest
2023
Series
The Story of Film: An Odyssey
Self
2011
Series
British Film Forever
2007
Series
John Bishop: In Conversation with...
Self
2016
Series
Square
Self
2012
Series
Television
1985
Series
Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius
Self
2025
Film
A Special Day
Self
2012
Film
Cannes Uncut
Self
2023
Film
We Are Many
Self
2014
Film
Loach vs Corbyn: The Bad Patriots
HIMSELF
2024
Film
Thatcher's Not Dead
Self
2022
Film
Water and Sugar – Carlo Di Palma: The Colours of Life
Self
2017
Film
Jordi Dauder, la revolució pendent
Himself
2012
Film
Vittorio D.
Self
2009
Series
Reel Britannia
Self
2022
Film
Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach
Self - Film Director
2016
Film
To Make a Comedy Is No Fun
Self
2016
Film
Il était une fois... « Rosetta »
Self
2015
Film
CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel
Self
2018
Film
Film: The Living Record of Our Memory
Self
2022
Film
The Bad Patriots
2024
Film
The Legend of the Palme d’Or Continues
Self
2025
Film
Once upon a time... "I, Daniel Blake"
himself
2021
Film
Who Killed British Cinema?
Self
2018
Film
Citizen Ken Loach
Self
1997
Film
A Turnip Head's Guide To The British Cinema
Self
1986
Film
What Do You Know About Me
Self
2009
Film
I Get Knocked Down
Self
2023
Series
Victoria Wood: The Secret List
Self
2020
Film
Carry On Ken
2006
Film
The Making of 'Hidden Agenda'
Self
1990
Film
Uomini in Marcia
2024
Carry On Ken
2006
Film
About Cinema
Self
2015
Censoring Palestine
Self
2024
Film
The Dream Palace: A People's History of Tyneside Cinema
2018
Film
Right to Work March
1972
Film
Shooting from the Heart: Chris Menges, Cameraman
Self
1985
Film
Great Directors
Self
2009
Film
Ken and Rosa
Himself
2001
Film
40 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight
Self
2008
Film
C'era una volta in Italia - Giacarta sta arrivando
Sé stesso
2022
Film
Greg Davies: Looking for Kes
Self
2019
Film
A Bolsa ou a Vida
Self
2021
Film
The Great NHS Heist
Himself
2019
Film
Making Kes
Self
2010
Film
Catastroika
Self
2012
Film
Ken Loach, le vent de la révolte
Self
2023
Film
Oh Jeremy Corbyn - The Big Lie
(himself)
2023
Film
Celuloide colectivo: el cine en guerra
Himself
2009
Film
Drama Out of a Crisis: A Celebration of Play for Today
Self – Director
2020
How to Make a Ken Loach Film
self
2016