Hannah Rothschild: Can you tell me about your history with Channel 4?

Ken Loach: I’ve had very mixed experiences with Channel 4, some brilliant and some horrific. I did The Band for them [which] was banned in what was straight political censorship, and Channel 4 was politically inept and cowardly. That took two years out of my life and a lot of senior people just hung me out to dry. But there were good experiences, such as working with David Rose and Film4.

Do you think that without Film4 your career would have been very different?

Yes. The critical things for me were that Film4 wholly financed three films in the beginning of the Nineties. Riff-Raff, Raining Stones and Ladybird Ladybird and they really were the turning point for me. Before that I was really struggling and after that it was much easier, so I owe Film4 a huge debt.

Would you agree that for many British directors, television is their training school?

Yes, people either come [to film] through television, fiction or the theatre and commercials. Television is one industry with films. It is not separate. I mean you work in the same way. All the issues you have to deal with are the same. Whether the film is going on television or in the cinema.

You’ve just made It’s a Free World for Channel 4. Why did you decide to do it for TV and not film?

Television is still a very important medium; that’s the reality for British film. And the odds are that if you don’t have a big name your film will get a very short print run and therefore not much advertising and therefore not many people will see it. And it kind of fades away. So every few years we have tried to do one that has its first run on television. And then you might get a new audience.