Seven years on, Ken Loach’s angriest film still shocks with its portrayal of life on benefits. It made Dave Johns a star – but did nothing to mellow his righteous fury
With his biblical white beard and bright woolly hat, Dave Johns is unrecognisable. He looks like an Arctic explorer. It’s only when he takes off the hat and reveals the familiar shiny pate that you realise it is him after all – Daniel Blake.
Before I, Daniel Blake, Johns was a jobbing comedian. He’d not even had a bit part in a movie, never mind starred in one. Then Ken Loach’s film premiered at Cannes in 2016, got a 15-minute standing ovation, won the Palme d’Or and transformed Johns’ life.
