BBC film director Mike Leigh (Image: Getty)
Mike Leigh, who is a veteran in the industry still creating films to this day – has claimed the is no longer “a liberal place to operate”.
Voicing an opinion that he also shares with ‘s , Mike suggested that it wouldn’t be possible to make movies the same way these days as it once would have been. Lamenting what he feels is a lack of freedom today, he revealed that his highlight from working at the had been producing “a sequence of films called Play for Today”.
The 81-year-old added that the corporation had given him his big break in a hugely competitive industry. The topic was raised as he shared how “devastated” he would have been at the time of his first film, Bleak Moments (1971) if he’d known he wouldn’t have another theatrical release for a further 17 years.
Talking on the Awards Chatter podcast, he explained: “It would [have been devastating], but having said that, the prospect was bleak anyway because you couldn’t make indigenous, independent British movies much really.” He added incredulously: “I mean, it didn’t happen!”
He continued that he’d been “lucky” by getting on the first rung of the ladder via the . “I got a break – Tony Garnett, who’s a great producer, now deceased, who worked with Ken Loach a lot, got me into the ,” he explained.
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Film director Mike Leigh in 2025 (Image: Getty)
“The at that time, and this is no longer the case, was a very very liberal place to operate and a whole bunch of us, headed by Ken Loach, made films.
“There was a whole sequence of films called Play for Today which were always about real life, real people and all the rest of it,” he declared proudly.
Though norms have now changed in terms of what might be acceptable to show on-screen, Mike is still enjoying his time in showbiz.
After gaining a huge reputation for himself among fans of independent cinema, he recently debuted Hard Truths – his first film in six years.
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Mike Leigh with his Hard Truth co-stars including actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Image: Getty)
It saw him reunite with actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste for the first time in almost three decades.
Back in 1996, she performed in his -nominated and Palme D’Or award-winning film Secrets and Lies – and now they’ve worked together again in a collaboration fans have been waiting for.
It debuted in London and New York last October – and he’s kept up with the , with a documentary being released on in 2021, interviewing him about the experiences that have shaped his “creative life”.
has also opened up in recent times about cancel culture for comedians at organisations like the .