Ken Loach
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.
70 directing credits · 52 acting credits
Directing · 70
Play for Today
1970
Z-Cars
1962
The Wednesday Play
1964
Dispatches
1987
ITV Saturday Night Theatre
1969
To Each His Own Cinema
2007
The Wind That Shakes the Barley
2006
Modern Times
1995
I, Daniel Blake
2016
Days of Hope
1975
Sorry We Missed You
2019
Kes
1970
The Old Oak
2023
Land and Freedom
1995
Full House
1972
Ladybird Ladybird
1994
Sweet Sixteen
2002
September 11
2002
Hidden Agenda
1990
Bread and Roses
2000
Carla's Song
1996
Riff-Raff
1991
The Angels' Share
2012
Raining Stones
1993
Jimmy's Hall
2014
Looking for Eric
2009
It's a Free World...
2007
My Name Is Joe
1998
Black Jack
1979
The Navigators
2001
Ae Fond Kiss...
2004
Family Life
1971
Route Irish
2011
Looks and Smiles
1981
The Spirit of '45
2013
Tickets
2005
Fatherland
1986
Poor Cow
1967
The Price of Coal, Part 2: Back to Reality
1977
Up the Junction
1965
The Save the Children Fund Film
1971
Cathy Come Home
1966
Diary of a Young Man
1964
The End of Arthur's Marriage
1965
McLibel
2005
The Gamekeeper
1980
The Price of Coal, Part 1: Meet the People
1977
Teletale
1963
Split Screen
1986
The Big Flame
1969
Three Clear Sundays
1965
The Red and the Blue
1983
In Two Minds
1967
Another City: A Week in the Life of Bath's Football Club
1998
Talk About Work
1971
The Rank and File
1971
The Coming Out Party
1965
The View from the Woodpile
1989
A Tap on the Shoulder
1965
A Question of Leadership
1981
The Flickering Flame
1996
A Contemporary Case for Common Ownership
1995
In Conversation With Jeremy Corbyn
2016
Time to Go
1989
Auditions
1980
Wear a Very Big Hat
1965
Which Side Are You On?
1985
The Arthur Legend
1991
The Golden Vision
1968
End of the Battle... Not the End of the War
1985
Acting · 52
Question Time
1979
Faut Voir - L'Hebdo cinéma
2023
The Story of Film: An Odyssey
2011
Square
2012
John Bishop: In Conversation with...
2016
Jane Austen: Rise of a Genius
2025
Reel Britannia
2022
Water and Sugar – Carlo Di Palma: The Colours of Life
2017
40 x 15: The Forty Years of the Directors' Fortnight
2008
A Special Day
2012
Victoria Wood: The Secret List
2020
Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach
2016
Film: The Living Record of Our Memory
2022
The Legend of the Palme d’Or Continues
2025
Cannes Uncut
2023
Vittorio D.
2009
What Do You Know About Me
2009
Who Killed British Cinema?
2018
Carry On Ken
2006
A Turnip Head's Guide To The British Cinema
1986
We Are Many
2014
Shooting from the Heart: Chris Menges, Cameraman
1985
CzechMate: In Search of Jiří Menzel
2018
Great Directors
2009
Thatcher's Not Dead
2022
To Make a Comedy Is No Fun
2016
Carry On Ken
2006
About Cinema
2015
Drama Out of a Crisis: A Celebration of Play for Today
2020
Il était une fois... « Rosetta »
2015
The Dream Palace: A People's History of Tyneside Cinema
2018
The Making of 'Hidden Agenda'
1990
How to Make a Ken Loach Film
2016
Right to Work March
1972
Greg Davies: Looking for Kes
2019
Celuloide colectivo: el cine en guerra
2009
Once upon a time... "I, Daniel Blake"
2021
A Bolsa ou a Vida
2021
Jordi Dauder, la revolució pendent
2012
Ken and Rosa
2001
Censoring Palestine
2024
I Get Knocked Down
2023
Oh Jeremy Corbyn - The Big Lie
2023
Catastroika
2012
Making Kes
2010
Ken Loach, le vent de la révolte
2023
Uomini in Marcia
2024
Loach vs Corbyn: The Bad Patriots
2024
C'era una volta in Italia - Giacarta sta arrivando
2022
Citizen Ken Loach
1997
The Bad Patriots
2024
The Great NHS Heist
2019