Ken Loach at the BBC [DVD] [1965]

At last after a 38 year wait able to see Days of Hope again. I was not disappointed watching all of Ken Loach's early works. It's been well worth the wait. Excellent production of all episodes.Top quality sound and graphics. Top value.

TV Loach the goat

If you love classic British movies, you will love Ken Loach

I vividly remember the 1970's as a decade of turbulence, social unrest and industrial disputes and the flavour of this decade is superbly captured by Ken Loach in the series of films he made for the BBC which are in this excellent package of DVD's. Loach's views of the events that occured in this decade are seen from a left wing perspective and people of a right wing persuasion or supporters of the British establishment and the status quo will probably not rush out to buy them. For my part, sharing as I do much of Loach's political opinions, I don't mind one bit as you rarely see the work of people with his passion, courage and willingness to question the status quo shown on our TV screens these days.The saddest thing of all is that nothing fundamentally has changed in British society in the fourty years since he made these films - the power elites in society still abuse their power, the exploiters continue to exploit and the kind of people being exploited are much the same as they were four decades ago. In recent years we have seen just how corrupt people in power have become, whether they be politicians fiddling their expenses, newspaper moguls presiding over tabloids that hack into people's emails and ruin their lives, financiers who recklessly gamble with our money at our expense and senior policemen who engage in dodgy relationships with the press and criminals. In essence, the situations then and now are similar, only the names and faces have changed. The ultimate insult to our intelligence is when millionaire politicians in a cabinet mostly composed of millionaires who have no idea about how the majority of people in Britian live and what they are going through proclaim to people struggling to make ends meet because of a terrible situation not of their creation that "we are all in this together."Loach's films concentrate on the lives of groups of working people who combat the oppression of employers, who engage in a struggle to improve their quality of life and on the work of their elected representatives to give them a voice in the corridors of power. The most impressive films for me are "Days of hope" about industrial unrest in the 1920's, "The price of coal" about a mining accident in the mid 1970's and "Cathy come home" about homelessness not many years later. They are full of passion and compassion, they show us the rampant injustice of their times and how people strive to find a place in the sun.What a shame that so many film makers these days don't appear to have the courage or originality to tackle subjects that are a bit outside the box or want to make films about real people and real situations that appeal to the intellect. They just feed us a monotonous diet of serial killers, juvenile science fiction stories, films about the supernatural, films that are no more than a procession of computer generated images or are poor sequals of earlier successful films or frantic action films that are strictly for the brain dead. Do they think so little of us that we cannot manage to watch films that require a little intelligence and a degree of original thought?

This boxed set is great value. Some 18.5 hours of viewing, the films featured are:The Big Flame, Three Clear Sundays, Days of Hope, The End of Arthur’s Marriage, In Two Minds, Up the Junction, The Price of Coal, Cathy Come Home and The Rank and File. Two are classics, but each of the other films provides incredible insight into the times. Loach has a very particular perspective and presents issues from the point of ordinary working people. He condemns, rightly, the social care system, the power of right wing politicians, media moguls and the social elite. Looking back, the greatest tragedy is that in many ways, little has changed. Social Injustice and inequality is rife, unions are having to fight for better pay, the underprivileged are struggling more than ever and the health and social care system is collapsing.These films are ones to watch more than once and I’m really pleased with this collection.

this was great