Alan Clarke

An unusually brilliant generation of film-makers emerged from British television drama in the 1960-70s - none more formidable than Alan Clarke. Yet Clarke enjoyed only a vague renown among the public, even though some of his most incendiary productions - Scum, The Firm, Made in Britain - attracted great controversy. But he was greatly admired by his fellow professionals: 'He became the best of all of us', Stephen Frears observed after Clarke's untimely death in 1990.

In his work Clarke expl...