
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