Ken Loach

Born: June 17 1936
Where: Nuneaton, Warwickshire, UK

One of the truly original voices in British cinema, Loach's dyed-in-the-wool socialism has never been compromised in a series of successes from Kes to Land And Freedom.

His gritty, honest films may never have troubled the Academy Awards but they have resulted in the government of the day altering its policy.

About as un-Hollywood as you can get, Loach's cinema verité style is based on a workshop approach with his casts working out the dialogue on the hoof.

He spent the early part of his childhood moving around the country thanks to the onset of war and by the age of 25 had completed two years of National Service in The Royal Air Force.

He went on to read law at Oxford where he involved himself with the University's drama group leading to work after graduation as an actor in repertory theatre.

In 1961 Loach received a sponsorship to become an assistant director at the Northampton Repertory Theatre before joining the BBC as a trainee television director.

His first undertaking was to direct Catherine in 1964 (which starred Tony Garnett who was to play a large part in Loach's career) and was then assigned to direct three episodes of the gritty police series Z Cars.

He went on to make a series of docu-dramas, most notably the devastating Cathy Come Home in 1966 which directly led to a change in the homelessness laws and the setting up of the charity Shelter.

Also during this period, Loach directed his first feature film - Poor Cow - but he was to really make his mark with Kes, which is acknowledged as the pivotal British film of the late 1960s.

The story of a boy who finds an escape from his dead end working class life through a tamed kestrel is regarded as one of Loach's finest moments.

However, the following two decades saw his career in the doldrums with his films poorly distributed despite the obvious quality of work such as The Gamekeeper and Looks And Smiles.

To add insult to injury much of his TV work was never broadcast (most notoriously, his documentaries on the 1984 miners' strike) amid charges of the 'partisan' nature of his work during the Thatcher years.

However, he made a spectacular comeback in the 1990s, with a series of award-winning films firmly establishing him in the pantheon of great European directors.

After years of, as Loach described it, "walking up and down Wardour Street, briefcase in hand, desperately seeking finance", he bounced back with Hidden Agenda.

The 1990 movie about British dirty tricks in Northern Ireland won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and was described by Tory MP, Ivor Stanbrook, as "the official IRA entry".

Next came the classic triumvirate of Riff Raff, starring Robert Carlyle and Ricky Tomlinson, Raining Stones and Ladybird Ladybird.

The first two in particular managed the difficult trick of combining incisive comedy with powerful social comment.

However, the latter was attacked for exploiting a real life case of a woman battling for the custody of her children and distorting the facts.

His subsequent films saw Loach travel to Spain and Nicaragua to pursue stories of social struggle with Land And Freedom (Spanish Civil War) and Carla's Song (South American politics).

My Name Is Joe saw a return to the themes of working-class struggle familiar from his television and early 90s film work.

In 2000, Loach made his first foray into North America (Riff Raff needed subtitles for US release) with Bread and Roses, a story of unionisation of LA's poor workers.

The Navigators, about Britain's deregulated railways, was less successful but Sweet Sixteen saw Loach on familiar territory telling the tale of a working class Glaswegian teenager.

Staying north of the border, Ae Fond Kiss is Loach's most conventional love story yet but still explores themes of alienation and family honour in Catholic and Muslim communities.