Book excerpt: A keen observer of British manners and mores, Mike Leigh has been hailed as a celebrator of 'ordinary' people. Comparing and contrasting all his films from Bleak Moments and High Hopes through Naked, the Oscar nominated Secrets and Lies and Topsy Turvy to All or Nothing, Garry Watson considers this claim, examining both their influence and their effect. Through careful textual detail and wider social and literary comparison with the works of Charles Dickens and T.S. Eliot, he argues ultimately for the aritistic and cultural significance of Leigh's work as one of Britain's most respected film-makers.