"Director: Ken Loach"

• Kes | DVD | (20/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Two brothers get caught up in Ireland's bid for independence in 1920.

• The Wind That Shakes The Barley | DVD | (26/11/2007) from £7.55   |  Saving you £8.44 (111.79%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Two brothers get caught up in Ireland's bid for independence in 1920.

• Cathy Come Home | DVD | (05/09/2011) from £5.99   |  Saving you £0.01 (0.17%)   |  RRP £6.00

  Controversial moving and brilliantly acted this film directed by Ken Loach is arguably the most influential television drama ever broadcast. Watched by 12 million people - a quarter of the British population at the time - on its first broadcast on 16 November 1966 Cathy Come Home was a defining moment in British television history. It provoked major public and political discussion and challenged the accepted conventions of television drama. The film tells the story of Cathy and Reg a couple with three young children who find their life spiralling into poverty when Reg loses his well-paid job. Gripping and emotional it remains a truly ground-breaking piece of dramatic fiction engaging viewers with social issues such as homelessness unemployment and the rights of mothers to keep their own children. Utilising documentary-style filming on location the film consolidated director Ken Loach's reputation for hard-hitting social realism.

• The Angels' Share | DVD | (24/09/2012) from £6.19   |  Saving you £13.80 (222.94%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From award-winning director Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty comes a bitter sweet comedy caper which proves that sometimes all you need in life is a little spirit. Escaping a prison sentence by the skin of his teeth, the wayward and disillusioned Robbie is given one last chance to turn his life around. Together the four friends he embarks on an adventure and discovers that turning to drink might just change their lives - not cheap fortified wine, but the best malt whiskies in the world.

• Ken Loach Collection (3-disc DVD) | DVD | (25/09/2017) from £16.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  KEN LOACH COLLECTION (3-DVD set) This new collection brings together three of Ken Loach's finest films from the 1990s, titles linked by the director's career long drive to tackle social injustice and contemporary political issues. In Riff Raff Glaswegian jailbird Stevie (Robert Carlyle) heads to London to find work but discovers a world of corruption and degradation. Inner-city poverty is brought to the fore in Raining Stones, as unemployed Bob's (Bruce Jones) desperate attempts to afford a communion dress for his daughter results in a succession of disasters. Inspired by real events, Ladybird Ladybird is an emotional and harrowing story of a woman's fight to keep her children and relationship intact in the face of bureaucratic interference. Special Features Fully illustrated booklet with new writing on the film and full credits Other extras TBC UK | 1991 - 1994 | colour | 90 + 90 + 102 mins | English language, with optional hard-of-hearing subtitles | cert 18

• I, Daniel Blake | DVD | (27/02/2017) from £4.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From acclaimed director Ken Loach comes his new film, I Daniel Blake. Daniel Blake (59) has worked as a joiner most of his life in Newcastle. Now, for the first time ever, he needs help from the State. He crosses paths with single mother Katie and her two young children, Daisy and Dylan. Katie's only chance to escape a one-roomed homeless hostel in London has been to accept a flat in a city she doesn't know, some 300 miles away. Daniel and Katie find themselves in no-man's land, caught on the barbed wire of welfare bureaucracy as played out against the rhetoric of ˜striver and skiver' in modern-day Britain.

• Sorry We Missed You (DVD) | DVD | (09/03/2020) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From director Ken Loach and the award-winning team behind I, Daniel Blake, comes Sorry We Missed You - a powerful exploration of the contemporary world of work, the gig economy and the challenges faced by one family trying to hold it all together.

• I, Daniel Blake | Blu Ray | (27/02/2017) from £7.93   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From acclaimed director Ken Loach comes his new film, I Daniel Blake. Daniel Blake (59) has worked as a joiner most of his life in Newcastle. Now, for the first time ever, he needs help from the State. He crosses paths with single mother Katie and her two young children, Daisy and Dylan. Katie's only chance to escape a one-roomed homeless hostel in London has been to accept a flat in a city she doesn't know, some 300 miles away. Daniel and Katie find themselves in no-man's land, caught on the barbed wire of welfare bureaucracy as played out against the rhetoric of ˜striver and skiver' in modern-day Britain.

• McLibel | DVD | (20/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The true story of the people who refused to say McSorry, and in doing so, changed the world.

• Sweet Sixteen | DVD | (16/07/2007) from £12.50   |  Saving you £0.49 (3.92%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Determined to have a normal family life once his mother gets out of prison, a Scottish teenager from a tough background sets out to raise the money for a home.

• Ken Loach at the BBC | DVD | (05/09/2011) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-0.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.00

  1965 saw Ken Loach working as one of the in house directors of the groundbreaking The Wednesday Play series at The BBC which included Three Clear Sundays Up the Junction and The End of Arthur's Marriage. Of these plays Up The Junction had the most impact telling the story of three young women factory workers in their work and home lives focusing on Rube as she meets her first boyfriend and chronicles the significant life changing events that follow including an illegal abortion. Not only controversial at the time Loach's inter-cutting of real life interviews mixed in with drama became a signpost for his future directing style striving for naturalism and realism. 1966 saw Ken Loach's breakthrough piece Cathy Come Home. The play follows the lives of young sweethearts Cathy (Carol White fresh from Up The Junction) and Reg (Ray Brooks) starting out as a newly married couple moving into a new place and having children. Reg then suffers an accident which means he is unable to work and they end up being evicted and separated. With Cathy homeless but still looking after the children she faces having her children taken away from her by Social Services. This is perhaps the play that has had more impact than any other on television highlighting the very real problem of homelessness. Even some forty years later the power of Cathy Come Home remains undiminished. In Two Minds charts the turbulent life of a young woman who endures a difficult family life and after throwing a kitchen knife at her mother is diagnosed as a schizophrenic. Much like Cathy Come Home the realistic documentary style helps provide veracity to the story. Written by Jim Allen The Big Flame is a story of striking Liverpool dock workers who decide that to safeguard their futures they must control the port themselves. This was the first of several Ken Loach / Jim Allen collaborations - many of which would be starkly political. The BAFTA nominated Days of Hope was Jim Allen's tale of a working-class family in the period from 1916 to 1926 taking in the First World War events in Ireland and the General Strike of 1926. Running to well over six hours the series tells an epic story particularly in the light of the parlous state of the economy and labour relations in Britain at the time. A radical series in every sense Jim Allen was able create real parallels in Days of Hope that resonated with the working class of the mid 1970's and the political climate at that time. Loach returned to the BBC with The Price of Coal (written by Kes author Barry Hines) a film which depicted the lives of those living in a coalfield community. The first part subtitled Meet The People is a comic tale surrounding the story of a colliery community in preparation for a visit by Prince Charles and the efforts being put on by the management to make the pit fit for a future king involving grassing over an unsightly coal slag heap and whitewashing everything in site. The second part Back To Reality is completely different in tone when the colliery suffers a sudden underground explosion trapping killing and injuring the miners and as the rescue team work frantically to rescue those trapped those above ground argue about who is to blame. The Rank and File which completes the collection again written by Jim Allen is a story based around the strike by the Pilkington Glass workers. This beautifully packaged collection displays some of Loach's very best work and gives a real insight into working class life in the 60's and 70's. The collection also features an interview with Ken Loach a documentary entitled Housing Problems and a commentary track for Cathy Come Home.

• The Wind That Shakes The Barley | DVD | (06/11/2006) from £20.28   |  Saving you £-0.29 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Two brothers get caught up in Ireland's bid for independence in 1920.

• Riff Raff | DVD | (17/03/2008) from £5.38   |  Saving you £10.61 (197.21%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Stevie a young Glaswegian just out of Barlinnie prison comes down to London and gets a job on a building site - a melting pot of itinerant laborers from all over the country. Here he has to contend with Mick the bossy ganger trying - but usually failing to control his workers Shem Mo and Larry and the other lads as they duck and dive the rules and regulations of the building trade. Stevie has other problems to contend: the wages are low the site teems with rats he has nowhere to sleep and life in London isn't that easy. One day on his way to work Stevie finds a handbag in a skip. He takes it back to it owner and meets Susan. As Stevie and Susan learn to live with the ups and downs of life in London Riff-Raff builds a portrait - sometimes gritty often funny of life as it is lived in the margins.

• Jimmy's Hall | DVD | (29/09/2014) from £4.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (300.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In the 1920s political activist and free-thinker Jimmy Gralton built a dance hall in rural Ireland as a place for young people dance play music and learn. As the hall grew in popularity its socialist and free-spirited reputation brought it to the attention of the church and politicians who forced Jimmy to flee and the hall to close. A decade later at the height of the Depression Jimmy returns to Co. Leitrim from the US and vows to live the quiet life. The hall stands abandoned but as Jimmy sees the poverty and growing cultural oppression within the community the leader and activist within him is stirred. He makes the decision to reopen the hall and in doing makes himself an enemy of the establishment.

• It's A Free World | DVD | (01/10/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Angie gets the sack from a recruitment agency for bad behaviour in public. Seizing the chance she teams up with her flatmate Rose to run a similar business from their kitchen. With immigrants desperate to work the opportunities are considerable particularly for two girls....

• The Spirit of '45 | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £3.26   |  Saving you £13.99 (699.50%)   |  RRP £15.99

  1945 was a pivotal year in British history. The unity that carried Britain through the war allied to the bitter memories of the inter-war years led to a vision of a better society. The spirit of the age was to be our brother's and our sister's keeper. Director Ken Loach has used film from Britain's regional and national archives, alongside sound recordings and contemporary interviews to create a rich political and social narrative. The Spirit of '45 hopes to illuminate and celebrate a period of unprecedented community spirit in the UK, the impact of which endured for many years and which may yet be rediscovered today. Special Features: UK Trailer Interview with Ken Loach Ken Loach short film: Which Side Are You On? Audio Description option for the blind or partially sighted English for the Hard of Hearing Subtitles 22 Extended interviews with all contributors to the film

• Kes (1969) (Masters of Cinema) Blu-ray | Blu Ray | (07/11/2016) from £14.85   |  Saving you £5.14 (34.61%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This was only Ken Loach's second cinema feature but it still ranks as one of his finest and most moving films. Billy, a disaffected young lad living on a soulless Barnsley estate, finds a fledgling kestrel and, for the first time in his life, feels his imagination gripped. With infinite patience--and a book on falconry nicked from a local bookstore--he starts to train the bird. There's no boy-and-his-pet sentimentality here: the relationship between Kes the bird and the puny, taciturn Billy is the kinship, full of wary respect, between two wild creatures, and when Kes for the first time flies free and returns to Billy's wrist, the sense of exhilaration is overwhelming. Although Loach never rams his message home, it's clear that Billy stands for a whole generation of youngsters whose potential, barring some such chance event, will never be even fractionally realised. Chris Menges' photography brings out all the austere beauty of the Yorkshire locations, and Loach draws believable performances from his largely non-professional cast--especially the 14-year-old David Bradley, stunningly convincing as Billy. And anyone who has ever suffered under a bullying, self-satisfied sports teacher will squirm with recognition at the brilliant cameo from the late Brian Glover. --Philip Kemp

• Looking For Eric | DVD | (12/10/2009) from £4.02   |  Saving you £15.97 (397.26%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In desperate times it takes a spliff and a special friend to help a lost postman find his way, so Eric turns to his hero: footballing genius, philosopher and poster boy, Eric Cantona.

• Poor Cow | DVD | (25/07/2016) from £8.94   |  Saving you £9.05 (101.23%)   |  RRP £17.99

  "I fell in the family way when I was 18 and I got married to a right bastard". Ken Loach's debut feature tells the story of Joy, a young mother (Carol White) whose chauvinistic thug of a husband is thrown into prison. She takes up with one of his friends, lovable, kind-hearted burglar Terence Stamp, but he too ends up in jail.It's intriguing to compare Poor Cow with Cathy Come Home, which Loach made for TV with the same actress at around the same time. Both are about mums trying to make a go of their lives in adverse circumstances. Cathy Come Home, shot in black and white, is an altogether tougher film. Poor Cow, with its Donovan music, gaudy colour photography, star names, and incongruously bawdy humour, seems lightweight by comparison. Certain sequences--Joy making love in the hay or posing half-naked for lecherous amateur photographers--must surely make Loach grimace now. There are some powerful moments--Joy desperately looking for her son who has wandered off, unattended, onto a building site, or trying to escape from her abusive husband--which anticipate such later Loach films as Ladybird, Ladybird or Raining Stones. The scenes between Joy and Stamp are played with real tenderness and humour. Don't be surprised if you think you've seen them before--some of the footage of Stamp was used in Steven Soderbergh's recent thriller, The Limey. --Geoffrey Macnab

• Hidden Agenda | DVD | (28/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  American activists Paul Sullivan (Dourif) and his fiancee Ingrid Jessner (McDormand) journey to Belfast to probe allegations of brutal human rights abuses by British security forces. When Paul is killed under mysterious circumstances the official reports list him as an I.R.A. accomplice. But Ingrid and British policeman Paul Kerrigan (Cox) question the findings and begin to uncover a shocking high-level conspiracy. Now with their safety in jeopardy they must decide whether to risk