Ken Loach: The Politics of Film and Television [Paperback]

John Hill's definitive study looks at the career and work of British director Ken Loach. From his early television work (Cathy Come Home) through to landmark films (Kes) and examinations of British society (Looking For Eric) this landmark study reveals Loach as one of the great European directors.JOHN HILL is Professor of Media at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of Sex, Class and Realism: British Cinema 195663 (1986), British Cinema in the 1980s (1999) and Cinema and Northern Ireland: Film, Culture and Politics (2006), the co-author of Cinema and Ireland (1987) and the co-editor of various collections, including The Oxford Guide to Film Studies (1998).

Not only offers a detailed critical study of virtually Loach's entire output from the now-lost BBC play Catherine (1964) to his most recent feature Route Irish (2010), but also explores the internal and external politics governing their production and reception, in often fascinating detail... [This is] clearly the most important addition to Loach scholarship since Graham Fuller's book-length 1998 interview Loach on Loach Sight& Sound,Michael Brooke

Hill's definitive study of Loach's television and film production from the mid-1960s to the present combines first-rate primary research with insightful thematic analysis to situate the director and his work within the political, institutional, and artistic contexts that gave the work form. CHOICE

Acknowledgements.- Introduction.- Towards 'a new drama for television': Diary of a Young Man and The End of Arthur's Marriage.- 'Urgently contemporary and socially relevant': From Tap on the Shoulder to Up the Junction.- Blurring 'the distinction between fact and fiction': Cathy Come Home, In Two Minds and The Golden Vision.- 'The play of political advocacy': The Big Flame and The Rank and File.- From Television into Film: Poor Cow, Kes and Family Life.- 'This is our history': Days of Hope.- 'The UK's pre-eminent arthouse director':lSê