Directing

Les Blair

Born

1941-10-23 (84)

Place of birth

Manchester, England

Known for

Directing

Credits

32 titles

Born in 1941, Les Blair is a BAFTA winning television, film and theatre director famous for productions that have political or socially aware themes and are often improvised or naturalistic in flavour. He attended Salford Grammer School and, whilst there, acted in plays alongside fellow pupil Mike Leigh. After graduating at Liverpool University, Blair met up with RADA graduate Leigh again and the pair became flatmates and proponents of Improvisational drama in Birmingham. After joining the London Film School they collaborated together on Leigh's first feature film, Bleak Moments. Blair's own work includes the groundbreaking and controversial BBC miniseries Law and Order (1978) and the 1993 f…

Known for

Bad Behavior poster
5.6

The McAllister family house is the setting for Gerry and Ellie's grapples with work, children and how to get the bathroom fixed. Both have reached the stage where reason cannot be heard above the ticking clock of experience and ambition. When temptation comes, how will they react?

Bad Behavior

1993

Bleak Moments poster
6.1

Moments from the uncompromisingly bleak existence of a secretary, her intellectually disabled sister, aloof and uneasy teacher boyfriend, bizarre neighbor and irritating workmate.

Bleak Moments

1972

London's Burning: The Movie poster
8.5

It's Josie Ingham's first day at Blackwall Firestation but things aren't going so well being the only female firefighter in an all-male team. Not only does she have to prove to them that she can do the job, problems at home complicate her life even further. Outside, in the heart of the city, tensions are rising to the extreme, Blue Watch have a long night ahead.

London's Burning: The Movie

1986

News Hounds poster
NR

Every cub reporter wants a front page 'splash' and the journalists from The Brit, a top-selling daily tabloid, are no exception. They're on the trail of a sensational story and their jobs depend on it.

News Hounds

1990

Stand and Deliver poster
10.0

Alun arrives in Glasgow to play a gig at The Edge, a comedy club run by would-be promoter Max T. Max T should be looking after Alun, but he already has his hands full trying to keep Sandy Cervi, his second cousin and business partner, from taking over the club. In a bid to sort out some 'poontang' for himself and Alun, Max invites Eva, a psychiatric nurse and her photographer friend Christina along to the gig.

Stand and Deliver

1998

Tracey Ullman: A Class Act poster
10.0

A short series of 15 minute programmes, really expanded sketches, in which Tracey Ullman and Michael Palin play various roles satirizing the British class system.

Tracey Ullman: A Class Act

1993

Behind the camera

Bad Behavior poster
5.6

The McAllister family house is the setting for Gerry and Ellie's grapples with work, children and how to get the bathroom fixed. Both have reached the stage where reason cannot be heard above the ticking clock of experience and ambition. When temptation comes, how will they react?

Bad Behavior

1993

Bad Behavior poster
5.6

The McAllister family house is the setting for Gerry and Ellie's grapples with work, children and how to get the bathroom fixed. Both have reached the stage where reason cannot be heard above the ticking clock of experience and ambition. When temptation comes, how will they react?

Bad Behavior

1993

Bleak Moments poster
6.1

Moments from the uncompromisingly bleak existence of a secretary, her intellectually disabled sister, aloof and uneasy teacher boyfriend, bizarre neighbor and irritating workmate.

Bleak Moments

1972

London's Burning: The Movie poster
8.5

It's Josie Ingham's first day at Blackwall Firestation but things aren't going so well being the only female firefighter in an all-male team. Not only does she have to prove to them that she can do the job, problems at home complicate her life even further. Outside, in the heart of the city, tensions are rising to the extreme, Blue Watch have a long night ahead.

London's Burning: The Movie

1986

News Hounds poster
NR

Every cub reporter wants a front page 'splash' and the journalists from The Brit, a top-selling daily tabloid, are no exception. They're on the trail of a sensational story and their jobs depend on it.

News Hounds

1990

News Hounds poster
NR

Every cub reporter wants a front page 'splash' and the journalists from The Brit, a top-selling daily tabloid, are no exception. They're on the trail of a sensational story and their jobs depend on it.

News Hounds

1990

Stand and Deliver poster
10.0

Alun arrives in Glasgow to play a gig at The Edge, a comedy club run by would-be promoter Max T. Max T should be looking after Alun, but he already has his hands full trying to keep Sandy Cervi, his second cousin and business partner, from taking over the club. In a bid to sort out some 'poontang' for himself and Alun, Max invites Eva, a psychiatric nurse and her photographer friend Christina along to the gig.

Stand and Deliver

1998

Stand and Deliver poster
10.0

Alun arrives in Glasgow to play a gig at The Edge, a comedy club run by would-be promoter Max T. Max T should be looking after Alun, but he already has his hands full trying to keep Sandy Cervi, his second cousin and business partner, from taking over the club. In a bid to sort out some 'poontang' for himself and Alun, Max invites Eva, a psychiatric nurse and her photographer friend Christina along to the gig.

Stand and Deliver

1998

Tracey Ullman: A Class Act poster
10.0

A short series of 15 minute programmes, really expanded sketches, in which Tracey Ullman and Michael Palin play various roles satirizing the British class system.

Tracey Ullman: A Class Act

1993

Number One poster
6.7

A down on his luck Irishman in London decides to play snooker for money.

Number One

1985

No artwork available
7.0

The launch of Chaser lager could be big for KFS if Alun shows some commitment; if Mike's lifestyle doesn't catch up with him; if the rest of the team concern themselves more with the product's image and less with their own - they might just have a winner on their hands.

Honest Decent & True

1986

No artwork available
7.0

The launch of Chaser lager could be big for KFS if Alun shows some commitment; if Mike's lifestyle doesn't catch up with him; if the rest of the team concern themselves more with the product's image and less with their own - they might just have a winner on their hands.

Honest Decent & True

1986

The Accountant poster
NR

London middle class Jewish accountant Lionel is preparing for his son's bar mitzvah when he does a little favour for a friend, and ends up getting mixed up with the Mafia.

The Accountant

1989

Filipina Dreamgirls poster
7.2

Several men from Wales travel to the Philippines on an arranged tour to meet Filipina women for romance and possible marriage. None of the women are the ideal Asiatic beauties the men imagined, but by the end of the tour, most of the Englishmen return with a new bride.

Filipina Dreamgirls

1991

No artwork available
NR

The offstage lives of four club performers who are staying in the same guest house and rubbing their illusions and disillusions together after-hours.

Four in a Million

1982

H3 poster
5.0

'H3' is a universal story of endurance and courage set inside Europe's most secure prison, the Maze prison in Northern Ireland. Here, in H3 - the bleakest of all the H-blocks - a group of young republican prisoners hold out for what they believe in, refusing to be labeled as criminals or co-operate with prison authorities. However, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher is determined that these Republican prisoners will be treated like all the other common criminals in British jails, ending a special regime which allowed the inmates political status to organise life inside the jail along POW lines. The republican prisoners immediately start a 'no-wash' protest, refusing to wear prison-issue clothes or perform work duties, a protest which results in their being locked in their cells for hours on end without exercise, recreation, reading materials and with only blankets to wear for heat...

H3

2001

No artwork available
NR

Anthology of short plays on the topic of seduction

Seduction

1991

Blooming Youth poster
NR

An improvised character piece, overseen by Les Blair and Tony Garnett set in the everyday life of a group of polytechnic students.

Blooming Youth

1973

Blooming Youth poster
NR

An improvised character piece, overseen by Les Blair and Tony Garnett set in the everyday life of a group of polytechnic students.

Blooming Youth

1973

The Merrihill Millionaires poster
NR

They were a top team - five miners who together had mined a million tons of coal but now they must face up to redundancy.

The Merrihill Millionaires

1993

Bet Your Life poster
NR

Like alcoholism, gambling is a disease. Ches, a compulsive gambler, is sent for medical help. A wonder drug perhaps? Or hypnosis maybe? Ches finds that his psychiatrist has other ideas.

Bet Your Life

1976

Bet Your Life poster
NR

Like alcoholism, gambling is a disease. Ches, a compulsive gambler, is sent for medical help. A wonder drug perhaps? Or hypnosis maybe? Ches finds that his psychiatrist has other ideas.

Bet Your Life

1976

Beyond the Pale poster
NR

"The British Brothers leave Hackney at 4:30 today and will march with bands and banners through the Jewish quarters of Whitechapel and Bethnal Green." The story of Jewish immigrants in London's East End in the early 20th century.

Beyond the Pale

1981

Early to Bed poster
3.0

Alan Bleasdale’s television debut, this beautifully observed drama stars Alison Steadman as a woman having a passionate tryst with the boy next door while her husband is at work.

Early to Bed

1975

No artwork available
7.5

Set in Johannesburg, JUMP THE GUN follows the tangled lives of six very different working class characters, formerly kept apart by apartheid and now all striving to succeed in the new "rainbow nation". United by their insecurities - both physical and financial - the film follows their struggle to discover their niche in this brave new world, where opportunity beckons, but violence is always lurking.

Jump the Gun

1997

No artwork available
7.5

Set in Johannesburg, JUMP THE GUN follows the tangled lives of six very different working class characters, formerly kept apart by apartheid and now all striving to succeed in the new "rainbow nation". United by their insecurities - both physical and financial - the film follows their struggle to discover their niche in this brave new world, where opportunity beckons, but violence is always lurking.

Jump the Gun

1997

Sunshine in Brixton poster
NR

Sixteen-year-old Otis loathes school. He wants to be a professional footballer, but is good at drawing, so his mother wants him to be a draughtsman. Then, a new sports teacher appears at his South London comprehensive school, and life starts to look a little more hopeful...

Sunshine in Brixton

1976

Bliss poster
8.0

Life for shy, romantic civil servant Leslie Bliss would be pure bliss if only he could get together with Julia, the new love of his life. Saffron and Gee appea rto be having a few problems on that score in the flat upstairs. Should all his hopes come to nothing, there's always his beloved Mastermind to fall back on.

Bliss

1995

Bliss poster
8.0

Life for shy, romantic civil servant Leslie Bliss would be pure bliss if only he could get together with Julia, the new love of his life. Saffron and Gee appea rto be having a few problems on that score in the flat upstairs. Should all his hopes come to nothing, there's always his beloved Mastermind to fall back on.

Bliss

1995

Leave to Remain poster
7.0

Set during the political upheaval following Ayatollah Khomeini's rise to power in Iran, Les Blair's gripping work tells the story of Shahin Mohamedi, a young Iranian woman studying in London. When the cheques her father sends from home are intercepted by the Khomeini government, she is threatened with repatriation by vicious British immigration officers. To remain in England she must be granted 'Leave To Remain'. Enter Jimmy Johnstone, an English wide-boy strapped for cash and willing to perform the paper marriage that will ensure Shahin's freedom. Jimmy wants to build on the relationship, but Shahin's heart is a thousand miles away with her old fiance.

Leave to Remain

1989

No artwork available
NR

Play adapted from the diary of Eamonn Dunphy, the ex-Milwall and Ireland footballer. With a new season and a promising team, professional footballer Willy Hutchison has a chance of promotion to Division One The dreams and dramas behind an unfashionable football team's struggle for success.

Only a Game

1981

No artwork available
NR

Play adapted from the diary of Eamonn Dunphy, the ex-Milwall and Ireland footballer. With a new season and a promising team, professional footballer Willy Hutchison has a chance of promotion to Division One The dreams and dramas behind an unfashionable football team's struggle for success.

Only a Game

1981