Mike Leigh & EastEnders: Capturing Britain's Working Class
By Suzanne Campbell
What can I say about Mike Leigh that hasn’t been said already? He is known globally as a prize- fighting director, giving us some of the most definitively memorable characters in the history of cinema. Why do we write about him so much? Because he is a closet EastEnder (Ed. note: he’s actually from Manchester), a kindred spirit, creating worlds running in parallel lines with Albert Square. Here I present my case.
His films—all of them—are about family. Even where there isn't an actual family, as in the case of Naked, there is the need for family or the need to get away from family. That sentiment couldn’t be any closer to the world of EE than if it were right on top of it. EE is, to me, all about family—loving them, losing them, betraying them, hating them, hurting them, and healing them.
Leigh may not appreciate the comparisons to England’s most popular show for many reasons, much as I’m sure Robert Altman wouldn’t like to have his films compared to As the World Turns—or maybe he would, strange caution that he is. Leigh also likes his actors to improv, whereas on EE improv is more the garnish than the meal. He may see it as too structured, hospital corners not being big on his list of priorities.
One thing that is high on his list of priorities is a penchant for sticking it to the upper-middle class, Vera Drake excepted. He is additionally one to take deserved potshots at the Hollywood studio infrastructure, both bloated and excessive by its nature. EE—right there with you, Mr. Leigh. Any upper to upper-middle class types that show up on Albert Square never last long (paging Steve Owen...), reviled by everyone from Mo Slater to Nick Cotton.
While Leigh said in many interviews that he doesn’t like to lead the audience along by the nose, doesn’t like to preach and have The Big Message in his work, he does see his films as “political acts.” Maybe he isn’t as nationally celebrated here as the Spielberg-Lucas Hollywood faction because, depending on the decade/political climate, most Yanks don't get him for that very fact.
For example, the charge around the water cooler among many here who saw Naked said that [the character of Johnny] was misogyny, pure and simple. They are wrong (the man himself said so, if you're wondering). Countless women left theatres enraged, ready to pick up their picket signs and start a rally on the spot. Johnny is cruel but, to be fair, he is cruel across the board, much like Nick Cotton. But while Nick is driven by an insatiable need to take from all of those whom he deems are better off than him and act as though they are better than him, Johnny is trying to feel something, trying to make that connection to another human that understands his mind and his actions, thus his tete-a-tete with both Sophie and Louise. He just wants to feel connected to the world.
EE has that in droves. Why else does Pauline goes spare when her children take off to parts unknown? She wants them to stay connected and together in Albert Square. Ian was heartbroken that his mum took off to live in South Africa, Steven following seasons later.
Then there’s Peggy Mitchell, about whom I question whether she’s ever seen all of her children in the same room at once. But they always come home again, to feel connected, to feel safe, to feel that cohesive bond that Johnny sorely wants.
Leigh creates characters and films about ordinary people. Even Vera, although amazing in her part to help women who seek abortions, is still an ordinary woman in appearance and mind, just driven to do good (Dot Cotton, anyone?). One can conceive of, pun intended, a pregnant Sonia going to Ms. Drake for abortion counselling. One can imagine Nick Cotton and Naked’s Johnny being bunkmates in prison and brothers in crime on the outside.
One can see Laura Beale getting together with Hannah and Annie from Career Girls for a reunion luncheon.
The point is that Leigh feels we are better off seeing films we can relate to instead of films filled with the lives of glamorous nondescripts, that ‘real’ characters enrich us more.
“People say, ‘Ah, yes, but audiences just want to escape.’ I think, that if people see a film like Secrets and Lies, where the stuff that's going on relates to things that they really care about, then it's more of an escape. Because you become so engaged in it and enthralled by it that you forget those things. They answer, ‘Well, yes, but then the audience worries about real-life things,’ but it’s fulfilling, it’s enriching, it’s not like just eating candy for an hour and three quarters. It’s actually really communing with something and feeling like you’ve been through something that comes out making you feel better able to go back and worry about the specific things that are your problems.” (Film Comment, 2004)
I feel that way every Sunday night after watching the good people of Walford.
In the matter of EE versus Mike Leigh, I rest my case—after I lastly mention that the fantastic Phil Daniels, who played Jimmy in the film Quadrophenia, the Blur song/video ‘Park Life’ and Leigh’s TV drama Meantime—joined the cast of EE in 2006, playing Kevin Wicks.
While my efforts to reach Mr. Leigh for an interview came up empty, I have high hopes that he’ll come around and box a few rounds with me on what I perceive to be the shared lineage of his films and EE, and come clean about how he feels being lassoed into the EE community against his will.
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