Five time Oscar nominee and BAFTA winner, the only British director to have won the top prize at both Cannes (for Secrets and Lies and Venice (for Vera Drake) - Mike Leigh is unquestionably one of world cinema’s pre-eminent figures. Now, in this definitive career length interview, he reflects on all that has gone into the making of his unique body of work.

Leigh’s work has always reflected its times and entered the vernacular, whether the harsh studies of Meantime and Naked or the humour of the now-legendary Abigail’s Party and Nuts in May. Above all, Leigh is an accomplished storyteller, and these films deal with universal themes: births, marriages and deaths, parenthood and failed relationships, families and their secrets and lies.