 Though he probably remains best known for directing G.F. Newman's
controversial drama series about the criminal justice system, Law and Order
(BBC, 1978), and the follow-up on the health service, The Nation's Health
(Channel 4, 1983), Les Blair's career as a film and television director embraces
23 television dramas and four feature films over a period of 30 years.
Born on 23 October 1941, Blair acted in plays at Salford Grammar School
alongside the slightly younger Mike Leigh. While Leigh went on to RADA, Blair
studied economics at Liverpool University before joining a Birmingham
advertising agency as a copywriter. But the two met up again in Birmingham,
sharing a flat and an improvisatory approach to drama at the Midlands Arts
Centre. Like Leigh, Blair also enrolled on a course at London Film School, but
then spent six months at the Prague Film School, where he made a documentary
about life in Soviet-controlled Czechoslovakia - the first sign, perhaps, that
his subsequent career might veer away from Leigh's. In 1971 Blair produced and
edited Leigh's first feature film, Bleak Moments, and both were subsequently
recruited by Tony Garnett to make dramas for Play for Today (BBC, 1970-84):
Blair's 'Blooming Youth' (tx. 18/6/1973) closely followed Leigh's 'Hard Labour' (tx. 12/3/1973).
For the remainder of the 1970s and most of the 1980s Blair, like Leigh,
worked mainly in television, directing dramas which were often devised through
workshop improvisation. This approach was evident in films such as The Enemy
Within (BBC, tx. 11/6/1974), about a radical teacher; 'Beyond the Pale' (Play for Today, BBC, tx. 6/1/1981), about the East London Jewish community; and Four
in a Million (ITV, tx. 30/3/1982), about four nightclub entertainers. Blair also
brought a naturalistic style to the television plays he directed from others'
scripts, such as Alan Bleasdale's first TV drama, 'Early to Bed' (Second City
Firsts, BBC, tx. 20/3/1975), about an adolescent's sexual affair with his
married neighbour, and Brian Glover's 'Sunshine in Brixton' (Plays for Britain,
BBC, tx. 20/4/1976), about an aspiring footballer.
The association with Leigh and Garnett highlights two important aspects of
Blair's work: the use of improvisation to coax naturalistic performances from
actors was an approach shared with Leigh, while working with Garnett enabled
Blair to pursue social and political concerns. In many ways Blair's films,
whether for television or the cinema, occupy an ideological space in British
film and television drama somewhere between Leigh's heightened, almost
caricatured naturalism and the social realism of Garnett and Loach, where a
naturalistic style is used to address social issues and aspects of political
history. This is clearly evident in Law and Order and The Nation's Health, which
achieve much of their impact through a naturalistic style and acting.
Blair collaborated with G.F. Newman again on his first feature film, Number
One (1984), about a snooker player's exploitation by a professional promoter,
the first of only three films directed by Blair to receive a cinema release. His
second, Bad Behaviour (1993), explored class relations in London in the early
1990s, following the social restructuring of Thatcherism, while Jump the Gun
(1997) was an equally perceptive examination of life in post-apartheid South
Africa.
The feature films, however, should not be seen apart from Blair's television
dramas, of which there were another nine between 1985 and 1993, including two
BAFTA award-winners: 'The Accountant' (Screen One, BBC, tx.24/9/1989), about a
small-time accountant who gets involved with the Mafia; and 'News Hounds'
(Screen One, BBC, tx. 2/9/1990), about tabloid journalism. Others include
'Honest, Decent and True' (Screen Two, BBC, tx. 9/2/1986), based on Blair's
experience of working in an advertising agency; Leave to Remain (Channel 4 tx
tx.11/5/1989), about an Iranian student in England; 'Filipina Dreamgirls'
(Screen One, tx. 15/9/1991), about mail-order brides; 'The Merrihill
Millionaires' (Screenplay, BBC tx. 29/9/1993), about the human effect of pit
closures; and 'Stand and Deliver' (Obsessions, BBC, tx. 15/3/1998), about a stand-up comedian. All
illustrate Blair's stylistic and thematic preoccupations: the use of
improvisation and unobtrusive camerawork to achieve relaxed, naturalistic
performances in the pursuit of a non-didactic critique of social reality.
Blair's impressive body of work has not received the critical attention it
deserves, probably because most of it has been made for television. The fact
that H3, his 2002 film about the 1981 IRA hunger strikes, has received such
little exposure is indicative of his neglect, in relation to his more celebrated
school friend.
Lez Cooke
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FILM & TV CREDITS
