Mike Leigh | |
|---|---|
 Leigh in 2021 | |
| Born | (1943-02-20)20 February 1943 (age 82) Welwyn Garden City, England |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation(s) | Director, screenwriter, producer, actor |
| Years active | 1963–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Mike Leigh (born 20 February 1943) is an English screenwriter, producer, director and former actor with a film, theatre, and television career spanning more than 60 years. His accolades include prizes at theCannes Film Festival, theBerlin International Film Festival, and theVenice International Film Festival, threeBAFTA Awards, and nominations for sevenAcademy Awards. He also received theBAFTA Fellowship in 2014, and was appointed anOfficer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the1993 Birthday Honours for services to the film industry.[2]
Leigh studied at theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), theCamberwell School of Art, theCentral School of Art and Design and theLondon School of Film Technique.[3] His short-lived acting career included the role of a mute in the 1963Maigret episode "The Flemish Shop". He began working as a theatre director and playwright in the mid-1960s, before transitioning to making televised plays and films forBBC Television in the 1970s and '80s. Leigh is known for his lengthy rehearsal and improvisation techniques with actors to build characters and narrative for his films. His purpose is to capture reality and present "emotional, subjective, intuitive, instinctive, vulnerable films".[4]
Leigh's early films includeBleak Moments (1971),Meantime (1983),Life Is Sweet (1990), andNaked (1993).[5] He receivedAcademy Award nominations forBest Director andBest Original Screenplay forSecrets & Lies (1996) andVera Drake (2004). He received further Academy Award nominations forTopsy-Turvy (1999),Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), andAnother Year (2010). Other notable films includeAll or Nothing (2002),Mr. Turner (2014),Peterloo (2018), andHard Truths (2024).[6][7][8] His stage plays includeSmelling A Rat,It's a Great Big Shame,Greek Tragedy,Goose-Pimples,Ecstasy andAbigail's Party.[9]
Leigh was born on 20 February 1943 to Phyllis Pauline (née Cousin) and Alfred Abraham Leigh, a doctor.[10][11] Leigh was born atBrocket Hall inWelwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire,[12] at the time a maternity home. His mother, in her confinement, went to stay with her parents in Hertfordshire for comfort and support while her husband was serving as a captain in theRoyal Army Medical Corps. Leigh was brought up in theBroughton area ofSalford, Lancashire. He attended North Grecian Street Junior School.[13] He is from a Jewish family; his paternal grandparents wereRussian-Jewish immigrants who settled inManchester. The family name, originally Lieberman, was anglicised in 1939 "for obvious reasons".[14][15][16][17] When the war ended, Leigh's father began his career as a general practitioner inHigher Broughton, "the epicentre of Leigh's youngest years and the area memorialised inHard Labour."[18] Leigh went toSalford Grammar School, as did the directorLes Blair, his friend, who produced Leigh's first feature film,Bleak Moments (1971). There was a strong tradition of drama in the all-boys school, and an English master, Mr Nutter, supplied the library with newly published plays.[19]
Outside school, Leigh thrived in theManchester branch of Labour Zionist youth movementHabonim. In the late 1950s, he attended summer camps and winter activities over the Christmas break all round the country. During this time the most important part of his artistic consumption was cinema, although this was supplemented by his discovery ofPicasso,Surrealism,The Goon Show, and even family visits to theHallé Orchestra and theD'Oyly Carte. His father strongly opposed the idea that Leigh might become an artist or an actor. He forbade him his frequent habit of sketching visitors who came to the house and regarded him as a problem child because of his creative interests.[20] In 1960, "to his utter astonishment", Leigh won a scholarship toRADA. Initially trained as an actor at RADA, Leigh started to hone his directing skills atEast 15 Acting School, where he met the actressAlison Steadman.[21]
Leigh responded negatively to RADA's agenda, finding himself being taught how to "laugh, cry and snog" for weekly rep purposes, and became a sullen student. He later attendedCamberwell School of Arts and Crafts (in 1963), theCentral School of Art and Design and theLondon School of Film Technique onCharlotte Street. When he had arrived in London, one of the first films he had seen wasShadows (1959), an improvised film byJohn Cassavetes, in which a cast of unknowns was observed "living, loving and bickering" on the streets of New York, and Leigh "felt it might be possible to create complete plays from scratch with a group of actors".[22] Other influences from this time includedHarold Pinter'sThe Caretaker—"Leigh was mesmerised by the play and the (Arts Theatre) production"—Samuel Beckett, whose novels he read avidly, andFlann O'Brien, whose "tragi-comedy" Leigh found particularly appealing. Influential and important productions he saw in this period included Beckett'sEndgame,Peter Brook'sKing Lear and in 1965Peter Weiss'sMarat/Sade, a production developed through improvisation, the actors basing their characterisations on people they had visited in a mental hospital. The visual worlds of Picasso,Ronald Searle,[23]George Grosz, andWilliam Hogarth exerted another kind of influence. Leigh had small roles in several British films in the early 1960s (West 11,Two Left Feet), and played a young deaf-mute, interrogated byRupert Davies, in the BBC Television seriesMaigret. In 1964–65, he collaborated withDavid Halliwell, and designed and directed the first production ofLittle Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs at theUnity Theatre.[24]
Leigh has been called "a gifted cartoonist ... a northerner who came south, slightly chippy, fiercely proud (and critical) of his roots and Jewish background; and he is a child of the 1960s and of the explosion of interest in the European cinema and the possibilities of television."[25][26]
In 1965, Leigh went to work at theMidlands Art Centre in Birmingham as a resident assistant director and started to experiment with the idea that writing and rehearsing could be part of the same process.The Box Play, a family scenario staged in a cagelike box, "absorbed all sorts of contemporary ideas in art such as the space frames of Roland Pichet..it was visually very exciting," and two more "improvised" pieces followed.[27]
After the Birmingham interlude, Leigh found a flat in Euston, where he lived for the next ten years. In 1966–67, he worked as an assistant director with theRoyal Shakespeare Company on productions ofMacbeth,Coriolanus, andThe Taming of the Shrew. He worked on an improvised play of his own with some professional actors calledNENAA (an acronym for "North East New Arts Association"), which explored the fantasies of a Tynesider working in a café, with ideas of founding an arts association in the northeast.[28]
In 1970, Leigh wrote, "I saw that we must start off with a collection of totally unrelated characters (each one the specific creation of its actor) and then go through a process in which I must cause them to meet each other, and build a network of real relationships; the play would be drawn from the results." AfterStratford-upon-Avon, Leigh directed a couple of London drama school productions that includedThomas Dekker'sThe Honest Whore at E15 Acting School inLoughton—where he met Alison Steadman for the first time. In 1968, wanting to return to Manchester, he sublet his London flat and moved toLevenshulme. Taking up a part-time lectureship in a Catholic women teachers training college, Sedgley Park, he ran a drama course and devised and directedEpilogue, focusing on a priest with doubts, and for theManchester Youth Theatre he devised and directed two big-cast projects,Big Basil andGlum Victoria and the Lad with Specs.[28]
As the decade came to a close, Leigh knew he wanted to make films, and that "The manner of working was at last fixed. There would be discussions and rehearsals. Plays or films would develop organically with actors fully liberated into the creative process. After an exploratory improvisation period, Leigh would write a structure, indicating the order in which scenes happened, usually with a single bare sentence: Johnny and Sophie meet; Betty does Joy's hair; [etc.] And it was rehearsed and rehearsed until it achieved the required quality of 'finish'."[29]
In the 1970s, Leigh made ninetelevision plays. Earlier plays such asNuts in May (1976) andAbigail's Party (1977) tended more toward bleak yet humorous satire of middle-class manners and attitudes. His plays are generally more caustic, stridently trying to depict society's banality.[28]Goose-Pimples andAbigail's Party focus on the vulgar middle class in a convivial party setting that spirals out of control. The television version ofAbigail's Party was made at some speed; Steadman was pregnant at the time, and Leigh's objections to flaws in the production, particularly the lighting, led to his preference for theatrical films.[28]
In 1983, Leigh directed the comedy-drama filmMeantime, starringGary Oldman andTim Roth. The project was shown onChannel 4 and premiered at theBerlin International Film Festival.[30][31] ForThe Criterion Collection, Sean O'Sullivan wrote that the film was addressing "the crisis of national identity triggered byMargaret Thatcher's election in 1979".[32]
There was something of a hiatus in Leigh's career after his father died in February 1985. Leigh was in Australia at the time—having agreed to attend a screenwriters' conference in Melbourne at the start of 1985, he had then accepted an invitation to teach at the Australian Film School in Sydney—and he then "buried his solitude and sense of loss in a busy round of people, publicity and talks". He gradually extended "the long journey home", visitingBali, Singapore, Hong Kong, and China. He has said, "The whole thing was an amazing, unforgettable period in my life. But it was all to do with personal feelings, my father, where to go next, and my desire to make a feature film. I felt I was at the end of one stage of my career and at the start of another."[28]
Leigh's 1986 project code-named "Rhubarb", for which he had gathered actors inBlackburn, includingJane Horrocks,Julie Walters andDavid Thewlis, was cancelled after seven weeks' rehearsals, and Leigh returned home. "The nature of what I do is totally creative, and you have to get in there and stick with it. The tension between the bourgeois suburban and the anarchist bohemian that is in my work is obviously in my life, too...I started to pull myself together. I didn't work, I simply stayed at home and looked after the boys." In 1987 Channel 4 put up some money for a short film and, with Portman Productions, agreed to co-produce Leigh's first feature film sinceBleak Moments.[33]
In 1988, Leigh and producerSimon Channing Williams foundedThin Man Films, a film production company based in London, to produce Leigh's films.[34] They chose the company name because neither of them was thin. Later in 1988, Leigh madeHigh Hopes, about a disjointed working-class family whose members live in a rundown flat and a council house. His later films, such asNaked andVera Drake, are somewhat starker and more brutal, and concentrate more on the working class. Leigh's stage plays includeSmelling A Rat,It's A Great Big Shame,Greek Tragedy,Goose-Pimples,Ecstasy, andAbigail's Party.[35]
In the 1990s, Leigh enjoyed critical successes, including such films as the comedyLife Is Sweet (1990) starringAlison Steadman,Jim Broadbent,Timothy Spall,Claire Skinner, andJane Horrocks. It was his third feature film, and follows a working-class North London family over a few summer weeks. Film criticPhilip French inThe Observer defended the film against criticism that it was patronising: "Leigh has been called patronising. The charge is false. TheNoël Coward/David Lean filmThis Happy Breed, evoked by Leigh in several panning shots across suburban back gardens, is patronising. Coward and Lean pat their characters on the back...Leigh shakes them, hugs them, sometimes despairs over them, but never thinks that they are other than versions of ourselves."[36]Independent Spirit Awards nominatedLife Is Sweet forBest International Film.
Leigh's fourth feature film was theblack comedyNaked (1993), starringDavid Thewlis. It premiered at the46th Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for thePalme d'Or and wonBest Director for Leigh andBest Actor for Thewlis.Derek Malcolm ofThe Guardian wrote that the film "is certainly Leigh's most striking piece of cinema to date" and that "it tries to articulate what is wrong with the society thatMrs Thatcher claims does not exist."[37]
In 1996, Leigh directed his fifth feature film, the dramaSecrets & Lies (1996). Its ensemble cast included Leigh regularsTimothy Spall,Brenda Blethyn,Phyllis Logan, andMarianne Jean-Baptiste. The film premiered at the1996 Cannes Film Festival, where it received thePalme d'Or and theBest Actress award for Blethyn. It was a financial and critical success. Film criticRoger Ebert, writing for theChicago Sun-Times, gaveSecrets & Lies four out of four stars, writing, "moment after moment, scene after scene,Secrets & Lies unfolds with the fascination of eavesdropping". He called the film "a flowering of his technique. It moves us on a human level, it keeps us guessing during scenes as unpredictable as life, and it shows us how ordinary people have a chance of somehow coping with their problems, which are rather ordinary, too."[38] In 2009, Ebert added the film to his "Great Movies" list.[39] It received fiveAcademy Award nominations, includingBest Picture andBest Director.
He followed that success withCareer Girls (1997) andTopsy-Turvy (1999), a period drama about the creation ofGilbert and Sullivan'sThe Mikado. The anger inherent in Leigh's material, in some ways typical of theThatcher years, softened after her departure from the political scene. In 2005, Leigh returned to directing for the stage after many years with a new play,Two Thousand Years, at theRoyal National Theatre. The play deals with divisions within a left-wing secular Jewish family when one of the younger members finds religion. It was the first time Leigh had drawn on his Jewish background for material.[28] In 2002, Leigh directed the working-class dramaAll or Nothing. The same year, he became chairman for his alma mater,London Film School. He remained chair until March 2018, when he was succeeded byGreg Dyke.[40]
In 2004, he directed his ninth feature film,Vera Drake, a period film about a working-class woman (Imelda Staunton) who performs illegal abortions during the 1950s. The film premiered at the61st Venice International Film Festival to rapturous reviews, winning theGolden Lion for Best Film and theVolpi Cup for Best Actress for Staunton. Review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes gave the film an approval rating of 92% with the consensus, "with a piercingly powerful performance by Imelda Staunton,Vera Drake brings teeming humanity to the controversial subject of abortion."[41] The film received 11British Academy Film Award nominations, winning three awards, forBest Director,Best Actress in a Leading Role andBest Costume Design. The film was also nominated for threeAcademy Awards, for Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay.
In 2008, Leigh released a modern-day comedy,Happy-Go-Lucky, starringSally Hawkins. It debuted at theBerlin International Film Festival, where Hawkins won theSilver Bear for Best Actress. The film was a critical success, with many praising Hawkins's performance. She received many awards, including aGolden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. The same year, Leigh was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature.[42]
In 2010, Leigh released his filmAnother Year, starringJim Broadbent,Ruth Sheen, andLesley Manville. Itpremiered at the2010 Cannes Film Festival in competition for thePalme d'Or.[43] The film was shown at the 54thLondon Film Festival before its general British release date on 5 November 2010.[44] The film was also a success in the U.S., with Ebert giving the film his highest rating, four out of four stars, and writing, "Not quite every year brings a new Mike Leigh film, but the years that do are blessed with his sympathy, penetrating observation, and instinct for human comedy...Leigh'sAnother Year is like a long, purifying soak in empathy."[45] At the83rd Academy Awards, Leigh was nominated forBest Original Screenplay, losing toThe King's Speech.[46][47]
In 2012, Leigh was selected to be jury president of the62nd Berlin International Film Festival.[48] Leigh released his 12th feature film, the biographical period filmMr. Turner (2014), based on the life and artworks ofJ. M. W. Turner, portrayed byTimothy Spall. The film premiered at the2014 Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for thePalme d'Or and won rave reviews, with many critics praising Spall's performance. Spall received theCannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor and the film won theVulcan Award for its cinematography byDick Pope.Observer criticMark Kermode called the film a "portrait of a man wrestling light with his hands as if it were a physical element: tangible, malleable, corporeal".[49] That year, Leigh joinedThe Hollywood Reporter for an hourlong roundtable discussion with other directors who had made films that year:Richard Linklater (Boyhood),Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher),Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game),Angelina Jolie (Unbroken), andChristopher Nolan (Interstellar).[50][51]Mr. Turner receivedAcademy Award nominations for Cinematography, Production Design, and Costume Design.
In 2015, Leigh accepted an offer fromEnglish National Opera to direct theGilbert and SullivanoperettaThe Pirates of Penzance (with conductorDavid Parry, designerAlison Chitty, and starringAndrew Shore,Rebecca de Pont Davies andJonathan Lemalu). The production then toured Europe, visitingLuxembourg (Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg),Caen (Théâtre de Caen) andSaarländisches Staatstheater.[citation needed] In 2018, Leigh released another historical feature,Peterloo, based on the 1819Peterloo Massacre.[52] The film was selected to be screened in the main competition section of the75th Venice International Film Festival. It was distributed in the UK byEntertainment One and in the US byAmazon Video. It received mixed reviews;The New York Times called it a "brilliant and demanding film".[53]
In February 2020, it was reported that Leigh would begin shooting his latest film in the summer.[54] After a delay due to theCOVID-19 pandemic, it was announced that the film,Hard Truths, would go into production in 2023.[55] Set in contemporary times, it starsMarianne Jean-Baptiste andMichele Austin,[56] and was released in 2024. In 2024, Leigh said he was struggling to secure funding for his next project,[57] but in October 2025, it was announced that Bleecker Street had agreed a distribution deal.[58]
Leigh uses lengthy improvisations developed over several weeks to build characters and storylines for his films. He starts with some ideas of how he thinks things might develop, but does not reveal all his intentions to the cast, who gradually discover their fates and act out their responses. Initial preparation is in private with Leigh, and then the actors are introduced to each other in the order that their characters would have met in their lives. Intimate moments are explored that will not even be referred to in the final film to build insight and understanding of history, character and personal motivation. When an improvisation needs to be stopped, he tells the actors, "Come out of character", before they discuss what happened or might have happened in a situation.[59] According to criticMichael Coveney, Leigh's films and stage plays "comprise a distinctive, homogenous body of work which stands comparison with anyone's in the British theatre and cinema over the same period."[60]
Final filming is more traditional as a definite sense of story, action and dialogue is then in place. Leigh reminds the cast of material from the improvisations that he hopes to capture on film. "The world of the characters and their relationships is brought into existence by discussion and a great amount of improvisation ... And research into anything and everything that will fill out the authenticity of the character." After months of rehearsal, or "preparing for going out on location to make up a film", Leigh writes a shooting script, a bare scenario. Then, on location, after further "real rehearsing", the script is finalized: "I'll set up an improvisation, ... I'll analyse and discuss it, ... we'll do another and I'll ... refine and refine... until the actions and dialogue are totally integrated. Then we shoot it."[61]
In an interview with Laura Miller, Leigh said, "I make very stylistic films indeed, but style doesn't become a substitute for truth and reality. It's an integral, organic part of the whole thing." He strives to depict ordinary life, "real life", unfolding under extenuating circumstances.[62] He has said, "I'm not an intellectual filmmaker. These are emotional, subjective, intuitive, instinctive, vulnerable films. And there's a feeling of despair...I think there's a feeling of chaos and disorder."[63] Of the criticismNaked received, Leigh said: "The criticism comes from the kind of quarters where 'political correctness' in its worst manifestation is rife. It's this kind of naive notion of how we should be in an unrealistic and altogether unhealthily over-wholesome way."[64]
Leigh's characters often struggle "to express inexpressible feelings. Words are important, but rarely enough. The art of evasion and failure in communication certainly comes fromPinter, whom Leigh acknowledges as an important influence. He especially admires Pinter's earliest work and directedThe Caretaker while still at RADA."[65]
Leigh has helped to create stars—Liz Smith inHard Labour,Alison Steadman inAbigail's Party,Brenda Blethyn inGrown-Ups,Antony Sher inGoose-Pimples,Gary Oldman andTim Roth inMeantime,Jane Horrocks inLife Is Sweet,David Thewlis inNaked—and it has been said that the list of actors who have worked with him—includingPaul Jesson,Phil Daniels,Lindsay Duncan,Lesley Sharp,Kathy Burke,Stephen Rea, andJulie Walters—"comprises an impressive, almost representative, nucleus of outstanding British acting talent."[66] His sensibility has been compared to those ofYasujirō Ozu andFederico Fellini. InThe New York Review of Books,Ian Buruma wrote: "It is hard to get on a London bus or listen to the people at the next table in a cafeteria without thinking of Mike Leigh. Like other wholly original artists, he has staked out his own territory. Leigh's London is as distinctive as Fellini's Rome or Ozu's Tokyo."[67][68]
Leigh has citedJean Renoir andSatyajit Ray among his favourite film makers. In a 1991 interview, he also citedFrank Capra,Fritz Lang,Yasujirō Ozu and evenJean-Luc Godard, "until the late '60s."[69] When pressed for British influences in that interview, he referred to theEaling comedies, "despite their unconsciously patronizing way of portraying working-class people" and the early '60sBritish New Wave films. Asked for his favourite comedies, he replied,One, Two, Three;La règle du jeu; and "anyKeaton".[69] The criticDavid Thomson has written that, with the camera work in his films characterised by "a detached, medical watchfulness", Leigh's aesthetic may justly be compared to Ozu's. Michael Coveney wrote: "The cramped domestic interiors of Ozu find many echoes in Leigh's scenes on stairways and in corridors and on landings, especially inGrown-Ups,Meantime andNaked. And two wonderful little episodes in Ozu'sTokyo Story, in a hairdressing salon and a bar, must have been in Leigh's subconscious memory when he madeThe Short and Curlies (1987), one of his most devastatingly funny pieces of work and the pub scene inLife Is Sweet".[70]
In 2012, Leigh participated in that year'sSight & Sound film polls. Held every ten years to select the greatest films of all time, contemporary directors were asked to select ten films.[71] Leigh named the following ten:
Leigh participated again in the 2022 poll,[72] selecting the following ten films:
In September 1973, Leigh married actressAlison Steadman. They have two sons. Steadman appeared in seven of his films and several of his plays, includingWholesome Glory andAbigail's Party. They divorced in 2001.[73] Leigh then lived in central London with the actressMarion Bailey.[74][75]
Leigh is anatheist and a Distinguished Supporter ofHumanists UK.[76] He is also arepublican.[77] In 2014, Leigh publicly backed "Hacked Off" and its campaign for UK press self-regulation by "safeguarding the press from political interference while also giving vital protection to the vulnerable."[78][79][80]
In November 2019, along with other public figures, Leigh signed a letter supportingLabour Party leaderJeremy Corbyn, calling him "a beacon of hope in the struggle against emergent far-right nationalism, xenophobia and racism in much of the democratic world" and endorsing him in the2019 UK general election.[81] In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, Leigh signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Corbyn's leadership in the 2019 general election. The letter stated: "Labour's election manifesto under Jeremy Corbyn's leadership offers a transformative plan that prioritises the needs of people and the planet over private profit and the vested interests of a few."[82][83]
| Year | Title | Distribution |
|---|---|---|
| 1971 | Bleak Moments | BBC Films |
| 1983 | Meantime | |
| 1988 | High Hopes | Palace Pictures |
| 1990 | Life Is Sweet | |
| 1993 | Naked | First Independent Films |
| 1996 | Secrets & Lies | FilmFour Distributors |
| 1997 | Career Girls | |
| 1999 | Topsy-Turvy | Pathé Distribution |
| 2002 | All or Nothing | UGC Films UK |
| 2004 | Vera Drake | Momentum Pictures |
| 2008 | Happy-Go-Lucky | |
| 2010 | Another Year | |
| 2014 | Mr. Turner | |
| 2018 | Peterloo | Entertainment One/Amazon |
| 2024 | Hard Truths | StudioCanal |
| 2026 | Untitled | TBA[84] |
Leigh has been nominated at theAcademy Awards seven times: twice each forSecrets & Lies andVera Drake (Best Original Screenplay and Best Director) and once forTopsy-Turvy,Happy-Go-Lucky, andAnother Year (Best Original Screenplay only). Leigh has also won several prizes at major European film festivals. Most notably, he won the Best Director award atCannes forNaked in 1993 and thePalme d'Or in 1996 forSecrets & Lies. He won theLeone d'Oro for the best film at the InternationalVenice Film Festival in 2004 withVera Drake.[85]
Leigh has also directed six actors to best actor or actress wins at the three major European film festivals: Berlin, Cannes, and Venice.David Thewlis,Brenda Blethyn, andTimothy Spall won forNaked,Secrets & Lies, andMr. Turner, respectively, at theCannes Film Festival;Jim Broadbent andImelda Staunton won forTopsy-Turvy andVera Drake at theVenice Film Festival; andSally Hawkins won forHappy-Go-Lucky at theBerlin Film Festival.
Leigh was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the1993 Birthday Honours, for services to the film industry.[2] In 2002 he was awarded an honorary degree from theUniversity of Essex.[86]
| Year | Picture | Academy Awards | BAFTAs | Golden Globes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | ||
| 1993 | Naked | 1 | |||||
| 1996 | Secrets & Lies | 5 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | |
| 1999 | Topsy-Turvy | 4 | 2 | 5 | 1 | ||
| 2004 | Vera Drake | 3 | 11 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 2008 | Happy-Go-Lucky | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
| 2010 | Another Year | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 2014 | Mr. Turner | 4 | 4 | ||||
| 2024 | Hard Truths | 2 | |||||
| Total | 18 | 2 | 32 | 7 | 6 | 2 | |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)I want to congratulate you all on your degrees and thank the University for my honorary degree. Of course I would also very much like to congratulate the new graduands of East 15 Acting School, with which I do have a connection, because although as we thespian-type people know, it is an extraordinary anomaly to wear a ridiculous costume and to receive a degree for acting, nevertheless it is a wonderful thing, too. And I absolutely congratulate you and the University on having facilitated this phenomenon. Thank you very much."
