Andrew Marr with Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh, Writer and Director

ANDREW MARR: Thank you very much indeed for coming in. Mike ..

MIKE LEIGH: It's nice to be here.

ANDREW MARR: It's lovely to have you. Mike Leigh films are different.

If you sit and watch a, a Mike Leigh film it doesn't feel like watching a sort of standard, Hollywood or more mainstream film. A

nd this is partly down, people say, to the way you actually approach the business of making the film in the first place. Can you just tell us a little bit about how you do this.

MIKE LEIGH: Well I suppose it may be down to that. But the question is why I do that and why I do that in the first place. I think sort of one could talk about the nuts and bolts of how I do it.

But I think the important thing is that I try and make films which are more concerned with making you feel that you really are looking at the real world and there like life with all its comedy and tragedy than the kind of synthetic world of a Hollywood movie.

ANDREW MARR: With a very clearly plotted, rather obvious plot and obvious fine writing stuck in the middle of it as it were.

MIKE LEIGH: Yes. And just kind of the gloss that some films, not all films, but from elsewhere put on things, I just as everybody knows I work with my actors. I start with no script. I, we do all kinds of work.

We invent characters. We do everything you can think of to make it possible to get out there and make up a film in an organic, spontaneous way.

ANDREW MARR: This, this new one, Happy Go Lucky, everyone says it's very upbeat. And it certainly is a kind of a love letter to optimism as people have said, very much based around this extraordinary actress Sally Hawkins and her character Poppy who's a, who's a school teacher.

MIKE LEIGH: Yes absolutely. I mean the film bursts with energy and the vitality that Poppy is all about.

I mean Poppy is, is a positive, grounded, sensible woman, a very good teacher. But she's got a great sense of humour, a great love of life. And she's kind of zany. But that's just the way she deals with ..

ANDREW MARR: And it sort of takes us into her life but it doesn't have what you would call a plot.

MIKE LEIGH: Well it, there are two kinds of plots it seems to me. There are causal plots. A happens and therefore B happens and therefore C happens and therefore D happens. And there are cumulative plots where something happens and then you see something else.

And then something else which may or may not relate to it happens and gradually you accumulate a picture of the world. And that is a kind of a plot in its own right. It's a progression through which you discover what the thing is about. And in fact the thing about Happy Go Lucky is that you really go on a journey with Poppy through which you get the hang of her.

You could be forgiven for wondering at the beginning of the film whether you're going to get on with this person. But you very quickly get to like her and I hope you wind up kind of loving her really.

ANDREW MARR: Without giving too much away anyone who's, who's still hasn't had their driving lessons might be put off by parts of this film. But and there's ..

MIKE LEIGH: Well we, we, there is the most fantastic performance by Eddie Marsan as Scott the driving instructor. I mean one thing I have to say, somebody the other days said this is a stereotypical driving instructor and I think that is rubbish.

ANDREW MARR: I sincerely hope not.

MIKE LEIGH: I hope not. And I would hate all the driv.. all the very good driving instructors ..

ANDREW MARR: Out there.

MIKE LEIGH: .. out there to, to miss ...

ANDREW MARR: One, one, one thing I thought about this film is simply that the colours of it seem to glow a little more brightly than I'm used to in a cinema. Is there a reason for that?

MIKE LEIGH: Well we wanted the film to, to burst with positive energy which it does. I always work and have for many years with the distinguished cinematographer Dick Pope and he shot this film.

And we, just at the moment when we decided to, to, to do this with the film and to d... that we decided to shoot it wide screen - the first time I've ever made a wide screen film - Fuji came on the scene with a brand new stock and we decided to use it ..

ANDREW MARR: Ah, I see. Okay. So it's Fuji film.

MIKE LEIGH: And so you've got these wonderful primary colours. But it's also about the production design and the costumes and everything else.

ANDREW MARR: Yeah. Yeah. Now some of your earlier work seemed to kind of paint a picture of Britain in the Thatcher years. Then you went back further with Vera Drake, the good abortionist, Britain in the fifties.

Are you saying something about Britain now? Because a lot of people would say these are grim times we're living in. There's climate change, there's lots of political depression around. No one knows what's going to happen. And yet it's very up beat. Is there a political ..

MIKE LEIGH: Well yes. I mean I think the real point about Happy Go Lucky from that perspective is this. We are in tough times. We are destroying the planet. We are destroying each other. I don't think this is by the way just a British issue. It's a global issue.

But you know while all that's happening and while we very properly should lament it and you know be pessimistic there are people, millions of people out there, on the ground, getting on with it. And Poppy is one of those people. And not only is she simply positive and anti miserable-ist but she's a teacher.

ANDREW MARR: So you need to submerge yourself in the enjoyment of living just by talking ..

MIKE LEIGH: Well it's, but, well it's ... there's a more specific thing. And that is that you know if you are committed as Poppy is and the tea.. the Poppys of this world are to teaching, to cherishing the future kids, that generation, then you know you can't simply hang, you know wring your hands.

ANDREW MARR: No. I can't finish by asking, without asking you about, about Charlton Heston on this day that his death is announced.

MIKE LEIGH: Yes I think it's sad that he's died. I mean obviously in the latter part of his life we've all kind of painted him as the baddie. And you know I don't want to comment on his ..

ANDREW MARR: His politics.

MIKE LEIGH: .. his politics and his, his gun ... To me his greatest single achievement - cos after all you know I have been here talking about a very particular character ... He was not a character actor. He was an actor who just did himself and ...

ANDREW MARR: You got Charlton Heston.

MIKE LEIGH: But his greatest achievement was not only that he was, did probably his best performance in Touch Of Evil by Orson Welles, but he suggested Orson Welles.

He was cast in the part and he actually suggested Orson Welles. And then of course collaborated with Welles and they decided to, to turn this character who was just a regular guy into a Mexican. And they did extraordinary thing together. And in fact I think it's his most interesting and most off beat performance in what is a great film.

ANDREW MARR: Well let's hope that somebody has the wit to re-run it in the next few days. Thank you very much indeed.

INTERVIEW ENDS

Please note "The Andrew Marr Show" must be credited if any part of this transcript is used.

NB: This transcript was typed from a recording and not copied from an original script.

Because of the possibility of mis-hearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, the BBC cannot vouch for its accuracy

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