Leland, David

   b. 1947

   Playwright and film director

   An occasional actor and playwright, Leland rose to prominence with a quartet of television plays examining the deficiencies of the British educational system. Birth of a Nation, Flying in the Wind and RHINO concluded with the powerful Made in Britain (1983). After co-writing the thriller Mona Lisa (1986) and scripting Personal Services (1987), Leland continued his study of repressed sexual attitudes in the 1950s in his well-received first feature Wish You Were Here (1987). The hypochondria ridden Checking Out (1988) and the William McIlvanney adaptation The Big Man (1990) were followed by the Second World War sexualities of The Land Girls (1988). Leland’s work exposes the insecurities and hypocrisies of sex and class inflected Britishness, his humour and incisive social realism occasionally susceptible to cliched sentimentality.

   SATINDER CHOHAN