Mike Leigh is an English writer-director with a career spanning film and theatre. He has received numerous accolades, including prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, the Venice International Film Festival, three BAFTA Awards, and nominations for seven Academy Awards. He also received the BAFTA Fellowship in 2014, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1993 Birthday Honours for services to the film industry.
Kiss of Death is a 1995 American crime thriller film directed and produced by Barbet Schroeder, and starring David Caruso, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicolas Cage, Helen Hunt, Ving Rhames and Stanley Tucci.
Life Is Sweet is a 1990 British comedy-drama film directed by Mike Leigh, starring Alison Steadman, Jim Broadbent, Claire Skinner, Jane Horrocks and Timothy Spall. Leigh's third cinematic film, it was his most commercially successful title at the time of release. A tragi-comic story, it follows the fortunes of a working-class North London family over a few weeks one summer.
"Nuts in May" is the 12th episode of sixth season of the British BBC anthology TV series Play for Today. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 13 January 1976. "Nuts in May" was written and directed by Mike Leigh, produced by David Rose, and starred Roger Sloman and Alison Steadman.
Urban Legends: Final Cut is a 2000 American slasher film directed by John Ottman in his directorial debut, and starring Jennifer Morrison, Matthew Davis, Hart Bochner, Joseph Lawrence, Anthony Anderson, and Loretta Devine. In addition to directing, Ottman also edited the film and composed its score. A sequel to Urban Legend (1998), it is the second installment in the Urban Legend film series. It follows a film student being stalked by a serial killer in a fencing mask, who begins murdering the crew members of her thesis film about urban legends.
Naked is a 1993 British black comedy drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh and starring David Thewlis as Johnny, a loquacious intellectual and conspiracy theorist. The film won several awards, including best director and best actor at Cannes. Naked marked a new career high for Leigh as a director and made the then-unknown Thewlis an internationally recognised star.
High Hopes is a 1988 comedy-drama film directed by Mike Leigh, focusing on an extended working-class family living in King's Cross, London, and elsewhere.
Alison Steadman is an English actress. She received the 1991 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress for the Mike Leigh film Life Is Sweet and the 1993 Olivier Award for Best Actress for her role as Mari in the original production of The Rise and Fall of Little Voice. In a 2007 Channel 4 poll, the ‘50 Greatest Actors’ voted for by other actors, she was ranked 42.
The Tree of Wooden Clogs is a 1978 Italian film written and directed by Ermanno Olmi. The film concerns Lombard peasant life in a cascina (farmhouse) of the late 19th century. It has some similarities with the earlier Italian neorealist movement, in that it focuses on the lives of the poor, and the parts were played by real farmers and locals, rather than professional actors.
David John Threlfall is an English stage, film and television actor and director. He is best known for playing Frank Gallagher in Channel 4's series Shameless. He has also directed several episodes of the show. In April 2014, he portrayed comedian Tommy Cooper in a television film entitled Tommy Cooper: Not Like That, Like This. In 2014, he starred alongside Jude Law in the thriller Black Sea. In 2022 he was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Play for his performance in the Martin McDonagh play Hangmen.
Kay Adshead is a poet, playwright, theatremaker, actress and producer.
Meantime is a 1983 British comedy-drama television film directed by Mike Leigh, produced by Central Television for Channel 4. The film stars Tim Roth, Phil Daniels, and Gary Oldman in his screen debut. It was shown in 1983 at the London Film Festival and on Channel 4 and at the 1984 Berlin International Film Festival. According to the critic Michael Coveney, "the sapping, debilitating and demeaning state of unemployment, the futile sense of waste, has not been more poignantly, or poetically, expressed in any other film of the period."
The Mad Miss Manton is a 1938 American screwball comedy-mystery film directed by Leigh Jason and starring Barbara Stanwyck as fun-loving socialite Melsa Manton and Henry Fonda as newspaper editor Peter Ames. Melsa and her debutante friends hunt for a murderer while eating bonbons, flirting with Ames, and otherwise behaving like irresponsible socialites. Ames is also after the murderer, as well as Melsa's hand in marriage.
The Blind Side is a 2009 American biographical sports drama film written and directed by John Lee Hancock. Based on the 2006 book of the same name by Michael Lewis, the film tells the story of Michael Oher, an American football offensive lineman who overcame an impoverished upbringing to play in the National Football League (NFL) with the help of his adoptive parents Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy. It stars Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy, Tim McGraw as Sean Tuohy, and Quinton Aaron as Oher.
Bleak Moments is a 1971 British comedy-drama film by Mike Leigh in his directorial debut. Leigh's screenplay is based on a 1970 stage play at the Open Space Theatre, about the dysfunctional life of a young secretary.
"Hard Labour" is the 20th episode of third season of the British BBC anthology TV series Play for Today. The episode was a television play that was originally broadcast on 12 March 1973. "Hard Labour" was written and directed by Mike Leigh, produced by Tony Garnett, and starred Liz Smith in her first major role.
Too Much of a Good Thing is a radio play, recorded entirely on location, as if it were a film, by Mike Leigh. Liane Aukin, the 'midwife' of the project, a BBC radio producer, knew Leigh through her brother David, the general manager at Hampstead Theatre. She had initially asked Leigh to revive Abigail's Party on the radio, but he preferred to supply an original piece. Ronald Mason, the head of radio drama, was enthusiastic and allocated £5000.
Home Sweet Home is a 1982 television film devised and directed by Mike Leigh, for the BBC, 'about postmen, parenthood, social workers and sex.' It was Leigh's second collaboration with Play for Today producer Louis Marks, and cinematographer Remi Adefarasin,, and with composer Carl Davis – the musical score featured a quartet of basses –. It stars Timothy Spall, Eric Richard, Tim Barker, Kay Stonham, Su Elliot, Frances Barber, Sheila Kelley, and Lorraine Brunning. It was first broadcast on 16 March 1982. The film was shot on location in Hitchin, Hertfordshire and has a 90 minutes duration.
The Short & Curlies is a 1987 short film written and directed by Mike Leigh. It stars Alison Steadman, Wendy Nottingham, Sylvestra Le Touzel and David Thewlis.
The Manchester Youth Theatre was a youth theatre which operated in Manchester from 1966 until 2003. It was founded by Geoff Sykes, a lifelong friend of Michael Croft founder of The National Youth Theatre who served as its Artistic Director until his death. Sykes and his wife Hazel ran Manchester Youth Theatre staging plays, musicals and devised shows which featured at the local theatres in Manchester.
