Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach Page #7

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He loves dancing, and he loves...

Not that he dances, thank God.

But he does love musicals and, sort of, the more camp

and the more glossy they are, the better.

# One singular sensation

# Every little step she takes. #

It's not contradictory to me.

I guess, in musicals, they have quite a sort of simple morality,

which, I guess, you know, is quite nice, isn't it?

And I suppose it's escapism.

You know... And he's a bit camp, isn't he?

So, he likes all that.

He likes men dressing up.

- KENNETH WILLIAMS:

- Hold hands. This is an upstick.

Up with your sticks, this is a hand-hold.

- I beg your pardon.

- I mean, this is a stick up.

The first professional job I got was understudying in a revue called

One Over The Eight.

Oh, stop messing about.

Kenneth Williams and Sheila Hancock were the leads.

There was this funny little man who was understudying Kenneth.

I mean, it's an unlikely place for him to have been.

I have an image of him in the wings.

I think he was a bit scared.

We had to go through the dance routines with an actor

called Jill Gascoigne - she had to gallop across the stage.

As she arrived, I had to grab her round the waist and swivel her over

and put her upright.

And I was hopeless at this.

And she was a bonny lass, she was not...

sylph-like, at least, but, I mean, very...

Good dancer. But I would seize her round the waist,

and she'd be saying, "Get me over, get me over!"

And, invariably, she would end up with her head on the floor

and her legs waving

and my anxious face peering in between them.

Well, he just suddenly turned up at the theatre.

He was a very strange-looking young man with a rolled umbrella and a tie

and a suit and a briefcase.

I mean, it was funny.

He played Br'er Fox, and that's how I met him.

To me, when he was on stage,

his brain always worked marginally before his instincts,

so that he sort of thought about it and then acted it.

It's a bit naughty to say this,

but he was the sort of actor he wouldn't dream of employing,

if you know what I mean.

Curious journey people go on...

Ken didn't make a film for nearly 12 years.

Here was a first-class director who had actually been virtually silent

in the cinema for a decade.

TRAILER:
An American has been murdered in Northern Ireland.

Police said the car failed to stop at a roadblock outside Dungannon.

And a high-ranking British inspector has been assigned to the case.

When he made Hidden Agenda, nobody would put it on.

Nobody would even give it a press show.

I think you lose confidence, you know,

if you go for a few years and you don't make a film, you think,

"I'm not going to be able to do it again. I'm going to forget the words to say."

It went to Cannes.

The right-wing press went for us.

There was a Tory MP who denounced it before he'd seen it,

a familiar tale, where he said it was the IRA entry at Cannes.

Hidden Agenda.

Every government has one.

The film was a success at Cannes,

despite that,

and he was known again,

and suddenly he was able to make films.

When he made Riff-Raff,

the National Film Theatre took it up,

and the critics all said, "Wonderful film."

And the bathroom here, which I think you'll find very impressive.

SPLASHING:

THEY GASP:

THEY SHOUT IN OWN LANGUAGE

What are you doing here?

Who are you?

Who are you?

I'm checking the plumbing.

Get out of there.

Everything seems to be working.

Once the political climate had changed a little,

and once it became possible to raise a bit of money from Channel 4,

or even cobble together a bit of distribution money around Europe...

..he just...

..took off where he'd left off

with an opportunity.

He found a group of people that shared his outlook

and wanted to make films with him.

I certainly remember him carrying himself much freer,

just being happier.

He knows that he's found...

..what he's looking for when he finds it.

I got a phone call off him.

"Rick," he said, "I'm doing this movie," he said,

"and it's about more or less a battered wife.

"She's got to have had a couple of kids to this fella,

"a couple of kids to that fella, been knocked about and battered."

He said, "But I can't find what I want, can you help me out?"

And I said, "How many do you want?"

And he went, "No, I'm serious." I said, "So am I."

He picked a girl called Crissy Rock.

# Come along and share the good times while we can

# I beg your pardon

# I never promised... #

I said, "Look, if I'm not what you want

"or I think you made a mistake,

"you can sack me and tell me to go and I'll understand,

"cos I'm not really an actress."

Woooooo!

And he goes, "No, but I trust you.

"I know you can do this."

As a director, the most precious thing you've got

is the actor's instinct.

If you've acted a bit yourself, you know, however badly,

you know how open actors can be and how vulnerable they can be,

and how easily they can be blown off-course.

He's got that gift to go inside.

He talks to you and he says,

"If this is happening, how would you handle that?"

I'm Kevin McNally from Social Services.

- This is my colleague...

- Sarah Thompson.

He actually makes you believe that you're that person.

We came to a decision last week where we will have to take the baby

- to a place of safety...

- What's safer than here?

The baby is safe, and you have no right, and you have...

We can go with the baby to the court if we want.

But you don't need to take, OK?

- It is something that...

- Just go to your office!

- Jorge, it's illegal...

- Just leave us!

The anguish of losing your children when in fact

you are capable of looking after them...

I mean, that was the point of the story.

It's a kind of well of experience.

People have said, "Well, this isn't acting, she's just being herself."

But, actually, the ability to tap into your own emotions

and express them in a fictional scene is absolutely acting.

You don't realise he's doing it.

So you're just raw, he just picks a raw piece of silk up,

and he makes it into a beautiful purse.

Neil. Neil.

You OK?

Right.

Right, one word before we start.

We hear it, we hear it.

And if you do it really realistically, it sounds right.

If you don't do it realistically, it sounds wrong.

Hayley, Hayley.

Do you mind just being there?

I'm working from somewhere I've never worked before,

which is not having seen a script.

It's kind of a dream, you know, shooting chronologically,

not knowing what happens.

It's what you want, because it means you're going to be able to do it

then and there, and it's just about you and who you're with.

- Would you like to go and see Agnes?

- Agnes?

When I went to the food bank, and we saw the extras outside,

I found it really overwhelming.

The reason it's so raw is because you're stepping into people's lives,

and these people that are using this place,

they're in this position and they're around you doing it with you.

It'll be from there round to the fruit and veg.

It's the purest environment you could ever have.

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