The British director Mike Leigh has been making critically acclaimed films and plays for 50 years. He is perhaps best known for his collaborative, improvisation-led approach, which involves rehearsing with an ensemble cast over an extended period of time. Much like real life, a Mike Leigh film is recalled not in chronological plot terms, but in single, impressionistic shots that contain everything there is to know: a mother standing in the doorway of her teenage daughter’s bedroom in Life Is Sweet, the way Vera Drake holds her cup of tea, or the listless quiet of a London street in Naked. 

POPPY BEALE-COLLINS: Where are you speaking to me from?

MIKE LEIGH: I live in London, but I’m based in Cornwall in this moment. I’ve been isolating here for over a year. I miss my kids, and my ...