(20 April 1941 - 24 December 2023)
The Cambridge-born director and screenwriter David Hugh Leland, who has died aged 82, began his career as an actor at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama. From 1970, he appeared in bit parts in a number of films, including Jacques Demy’s The Pied Piper, Terry Gilliam’s Time Bandits and The Missionary, in which he was billed as ‘Long Haired Man at Gin Palace’.
Leland’s first TV plays as a writer were Beloved Enemy and Psy-Warriors for the BBC. Alan Clarke directed and in 1982 they filmed Made in Britain, with Tim Roth in his TV debut as a racist bully battling authority. This was one of Leland’s four plays about education called Tales Out of School. Birth of a Nation dealt with traditional versus modern teaching, Flying Into the Wind had a mother trying to educate her children at home, and R.H.I.NO. saw a black girl fighting social services. In 2011 Leland wrote The Borgias, a short-lived historical series created by Neil Jordan starring Jeremy Irons.
Moving into feature films, Leland wrote Mona Lisa for director Neil Jordan about an ex-convict (Bob Hoskins) and a call girl (Cathy Tyson). Then came Personal Services with Julie Walters as the luncheon voucher madam Cynthia Payne. The White River Kid (1999) was an American comedy about a hostage plan with Bob Hoskins and Antonio Banderas. After the success of Personal Services, David Leland wrote and directed Wish You Were Here, the loose, not to say louche, prequel about the adolescent life of madam Cynthia Payne, which introduced Emily Lloyd. It was Leland’s directing debut and the film won a Bafta for his screenplay and a best actress Bafta nomination for Emily Lloyd. Leland was also nominated by the Writers’ Guild of America and the Golden Globes for Mona Lisa. He also won an Emmy for directing an episode of Band of Brothers.
Leland then made Checking Out, a US comedy with Jeff Daniels, The Big Man (aka Crossing the Line), a gangland boxing drama with Liam Neeson, and wrote and directed The Land Girls, with Rachel Weisz and Anna Friel, about women working on a farm during the Second World War. Concert for George was his personal documentary on George Harrison, with Eric Clapton, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. It won a Grammy in 2005. Leland’s last film that he both wrote and directed was Virgin Territory, aka Mediaeval Pie, a romcom set during the Black Death. He had also staged Victoria Wood’s first play, Talent, had cast Pierce Brosnan in his first stage role, and directed the musical A Tribute to the Blues Brothers.
If there is a theme for the career of David Leland it is that he always stood up for the underdog in his choice of subject. He was one of Britain’s major contributors to the arts of cinema, theatre and music. He was married three times, to Ann Speight, Stephanie Lenz and Sabrina Canale, fathering four daughters and a son.
MICHAEL DARVELL
