Mike Leigh’s first feature film, Bleak Moments, appeared almost 50 years ago, in 1971. For 40 years, working first in TV and then in film, he steadily produced his distinctive domestic dramas, all character driven, created from extended improvisatory rehearsals with his actors.
The last of this extraordinary series of miserabilist comedies was Another Year in 2010. Since then, Leigh has made two historical films, the terrific Mr Turner (2014) – Timothy Spall gurning and grunting as the great painter – and the righteous dud Peterloo (2018). Now, at 81, Leigh has returned for a coda in his classic mode.
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