It all started here for Dave Johns. The actor, writer and comedian had never visited a foodbank before he began filming I, Daniel Blake. He had never even heard of them. Millions hadn’t. But his eyes were opened by the scenes of poverty and desperation he encountered researching and filming his breakthrough role.
The 2016 film, I, Daniel Blake, became director Ken Loach’s most successful and influential film in decades. It put foodbanks and benefit sanctions centre stage – foregrounding the government and systemic failures that led to a million people receiving food parcels from the Trussell Trust in the year it was filmed in and around Newcastle.
“I always say I was radicalised by Ken Loach,” says Johns. “I hadn’t heard of foodbanks until I was in the film. And now there’s more foodbanks than McDonald’s.”
People were angry. The scene in which Hayley Squires as Katie breaks down on
