Mike Leigh

Brian Tufano obituary

Cinematographer who brought his imaginative sensibilities to films such as Trainspotting, Billy Elliot and Quadrophenia

Ryan Gilbey

26, Jan, 2023 @6:02 PM

Streaming: the best hopeful films for a new year

It’s time to embrace positivity – from the underdog idealism of Rocky to the transcendent A Matter of Life and Death and the gloriously morbid optimism of Harold and Maude

Guy Lodge

31, Dec, 2022 @8:00 AM

‘Godard shattered cinema’: Martin Scorsese, Mike Leigh, Abel Ferrara, Claire Denis and more pay tribute

He was the explosively talented film-maker who changed cinema for all time. But what did other directing giants make of this movie legend – and did they find his latter films unwatchable?

14, Sep, 2022 @1:44 PM

Post your questions for Timothy Spall

Ahead of the release of thriller It Snows in Benidorm, the actor is taking your questions on his life, career and bizarre way of making tea

Rich Pelley

25, Aug, 2022 @2:41 PM

If you watch only one film … the greatest movies by the greatest directors

Some directors come with such huge back catalogues that it can be hard to know where to start. Enter our film critics, who suggest the best routes in to the works of some of our most prolific film-makers

Peter Bradshaw, Simran Hans, Catherine Bray and Danny Leigh

09, Jul, 2022 @11:00 AM

Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo: ‘I’ve never heard us described as an island of joy before!’

Radio’s odd couple take questions from actors, directors and Observer readers about optimism, the films they disagree on – and biscuits

Miranda Sawyer

01, May, 2022 @6:00 AM

‘Fancy a little top-up?’ Teens throw a new Abigail’s Party with guest list of 30

The eponymous do of Mike Leigh’s 1977 play is reimagined in Abi’s House Party, a youth production at the Watford Palace theatre. But what would Bev think?

Arifa Akbar

14, Mar, 2022 @8:00 PM

David Thewlis on new show Landscapers and the misogyny of Naked: ‘I find it much tougher to watch today’

As he stars alongside Olivia Colman in a drama about the Mansfield Murders, the actor talks about his discomfort with Naked, doing night shoots with Julie Walters – and growing old grotesquely

Zoe Williams

07, Dec, 2021 @6:00 AM

TV tonight: the makers of Killing Eve are back with grisly crime thriller Ragdoll

Lucy Hale and Henry Lloyd-Hughes star in the new show, which is enjoyable if you have a strong stomach. Plus: the penultimate episode of Succession. Here’s what to watch this evening

Hollie Richardson, Henry Wong, Phil Harrison, Jack Seale and Simon Wardell

06, Dec, 2021 @6:00 AM

Naked review – one of British cinema’s great monsters

David Thewlis’s lost soul, raging around London in Mike Leigh’s fiercely bleak masterwork, is even more disturbing 28 years on

Peter Bradshaw

11, Nov, 2021 @10:00 AM

‘You have to be a control freak’: Mike Leigh on 50 years of film-making

At 78, with three Baftas and a Palme d’Or under his belt, the director still sees himself as an outsider. He talks about Hollywood’s obsession with big names, his determination to portray ‘real people’ – and being accused of pretension

Zoe Williams

27, Sep, 2021 @5:00 AM

Alison Steadman: 'I never thought I would live in such strange and scary times'

The actor is back from lockdown with two new dramas. She talks about her 50-year career, Boris Johnson and the joy of miaowing at John Cleese, while James Corden, Julia Davis and Mike Leigh pay tribute

Catherine Shoard

24, Sep, 2020 @9:00 AM