We made 'The Wind That Shakes the Barley' about the war of independence and the civil war, which were the pivotal moments of Irish history, really. 'Jimmy's Hall' would seem to be a smaller story 10 years later.
What strikes me - we're apparently at the mercy of an economic system that will never work and the big question is, how do we change it, not how do we put up with it.
The worst thing about being a freelance film director is that you're scrambling around Soho with a briefcase, looking for somewhere to make phone calls. That was my position for 10 years.
I think the Norweigan model of municipalities owning cinemas and being programmed by people who know about films is a good one.
Film is one small voice in a great cacophony of noise from newspapers, from the television, from social media, so it can have a little dent, you know? It can help to create a climate of opinion.
It would be exciting to take part in what we now call the Enlightenment at the end of the 18th century, but with modern dentistry.
The older you get the more new memories get wiped out, and you end up remembering more about your early life than what you did last week.
The far right was on the march in the 1930s, and we defeated the fascists through a great united working-class effort. That sense of unity and strength is what gave people confidence to change things.
The problem is, if you make a film that has certain implications in the story, and then you don't follow through, it's a cop out really, isn't it?
Most cities are eclectic. There's a bit of medieval, Georgian, some Victorian and some 20th century. That's fine. Bath is different because it was built within 100 years or less. It has a homogeneity.
There's a heresy which is perpetuated by film school that to be a great director you have to write your own stuff.
I don't think films about working class people are sad at all; I think they're funny and lively and invigorating and warm and generous and full of good things.
I was an understudy in a show called 'One Over The Eight' with Kenneth Williams and Sheila Hancock.
Because I've been around a long time I get a bit of leeway that other people don't.
All politicians will say they celebrate the NHS, but to a greater or lesser extent, they've all undermined it.
For the writers I have worked with and for me, the relationship between the personal comedy of daily life and the economic context in which that life happens has always been very significant.
We have to defend the migrant workers and give them our support and demand that they have the rights that workers here have from day one, but absolutely hate the system that forces people to leave their country, leave their homes, leave their families, to go somewhere else to be exploited.
My mum was a peacemaker, and in personal things I tend to do that, because I can't deal with personal conflict. I find that horrible.
Iain Duncan Smith and his regime, they wanted to make the poor suffer and then humiliated them by telling them that their poverty was their own fault and, to demonstrate that, if you're not up to mark then you're sanctioned and the money stops.
Bath was dusty and a little shabby when we moved here. It did look its age and you felt its history in its streets and buildings and little alleyways. The sense of the past was palpable. There were some bad modern buildings but there was a patina of age.
