Kes · reception & legacy

How Kes has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Distributors nearly buried it — American executives famously grumbled they'd have understood the Yorkshire accents better if the film were in Hungarian — but it became a word-of-mouth hit in the North of England and is now fixed in the canon, ranked 7th in the BFI's list of the greatest British films of the 20th century.

What's debated

The perennial fan debate is whether Loach, across five more decades and two Palmes d'Or, ever actually topped his second feature.

Its footprint

The football match — Brian Glover's PE teacher casting himself as Bobby Charlton and commentating his own game — is one of the most quoted comic scenes in British cinema, and the poster image of Billy's two-fingered salute became an icon in its own right.

Where it stands

A 'you must have seen this' cornerstone of British cinema — the film people reach for when they say social realism can also be funny and tender.

Named by the director

Influences Ken Loach has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

• Miloš Forman — Loach has repeatedly cited the Czech New Wave — Forman's films in particular — as the model for Kes's naturalistic look and humour.