Comic lands lead role in Ken Loach film

Stand-up Dave Johns has landed the lead role in Ken Loach’s next movie.

Filming has begun on I, Daniel Blake, which stars the Geordie comic as a 59-year-old joiner negotiating the red tape needed to claim state welfare after he falls ill.

He co-stars with Hayley Squires, who plays a single mother also grappling with the system as she realises the only way to escape a single room in a homeless hostel in London is to accept a flat 300 miles away.

Johns’s previous acting credits include the comedian-led productions of Twelve Angry Men, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and The Odd Couple in Edinburgh. He also wrote a stage adaptation of The Shawshank Redemption with Owen O'Neill, which played the West End in 2009.

And it is not the first time Loach has worked with comedians. John Bishop starred in Route Irish in 2010 and Justin Moorhouse, Mick Ferry, Des Sharples and Smug Roberts appeared in Looking For Eric the previous year.

Paul Laverty, who has penned several of Loach’s features including Looking For Eric and The Wind That Shakes The Barley, has written the screenplay for I, Daniel Blake - and it will be produced by Rebecca O’Brien of Sixteen Films.

Filming is slated to take six weeks in Newcastle and surrounding area, with the film due out next year, possibly with a debut at Cannes in the spring.

Published: 1 Nov 2015