Jim Allen
Writer · Died June 24, 1999, aged 72 · Manchester, England
James Allen was a socialist playwright from Miles Platting, Manchester, Lancashire, best known for his collaborations with Ken Loach. Allen began to write during his time as a miner. In 1958, he was involved in the launch and publication of The Miner. In 1964, he submitted a script to Granada TV, and was taken on as a scriptwriter for the soap opera Coronation Street (1965–67), a series for which he had little sympathy. His later play, The Talking Head (1969), recounts the experience of a talented writer driven to a nervous breakdown by the pressure of "episode delivery dates". Allen's first play, The Hard Word (1966), directed by Ridley Scott, was broadcast as part of the Thirty-Minute Theatre series on BBC 2. It was followed by The Lump (1967), the first fictional work directed by Jack Gold, who had begun his career on documentaries, and broadcast as part of The Wednesday Play drama anthology series. Both plays were based on his experiences in the building trade, and The Lump features an activist worker who frequently quotes Lenin and Jack London, establishing the political nature of Allen's work which was to continue throughout his career. Allen was introduced to Ken Loach in 1967 by Loach's regular collaborator at the time, producer Tony Garnett] who had produced The Lump. The first of Allen's plays to be directed by Loach was The Big Flame (1969), again for The Wednesday Play series. The play depicts a strike among the dockers of Liverpool, led by a Trotskyite docker against the wishes of the established union; the strike is violently broken by the army and police. In 1975, Allen wrote, Garnett produced, and Loach directed Days of Hope, Allen's best-known work. A serial of four episodes, it tells the story of the British Labour movement between the Great War in 1916 and the General Strike of 1926. The series' depiction of the British Army was the subject of much hostile criticism in the press at the time. Allen also wrote five plays (The Rank and File (1971), A Choice of Evils (1977), The Spongers (1978), United Kingdom (1981) and Willie's Last Stand (1982)) for the BBC's Play for Today drama series, and several episodes of the Granada series Crown Court (1975–76). With Loach as director, Allen wrote the screenplays for three feature-length films: Hidden Agenda (1990), which portrays the murder of an American civil rights activist in Belfast, Raining Stones (1993), a kitchen-sink tragicomedy set in Middleton, near Manchester, and, Allen's final dramatic work, Land and Freedom (1995), telling the story of an idealistic young Communist from Liverpool who joins the Government forces in the Spanish Civil War. Allen was diagnosed with cancer in February 1999, and died the following June.
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Biography from TMDB.
- October 7, 1926
- June 24, 1999 (aged 72)
- Manchester, England
- Writer
- 3 on MovieCove · 19 credits in all
What are Jim Allen's films like?
Across a limited sample of 3 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Morality and Bonds.
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 3
Light 0 · Serious 1 · Dark 2
Grounded 3 · Stylized 0 · Heightened 0
Gentle 0 · Charged 3 · Intense 0
Steady 2 · Shifting 1 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 3 · Some laughs 0 · Funny 0
Slow burn 1 · Even-paced 2 · Relentless 0
A split, not a type: Casual 1 · Engaged 0 · Full focus 2
Easy watch 0 · Affecting 2 · Heavy 1
Resolved 1 · Open-ended 2 · Ambiguous 0
Moods and endings
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Jim Allen's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 2 of their 3 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Tubi (2).
Subscription and free streaming for Jim Allen's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
19 credits, 3 with a MovieCove page; 2 appearances as themselves are hidden until asked for.
Land and Freedom(1995)
Midcredits score: 94th percentile of all films
Raining Stones(1993)
Midcredits score: 90th percentile of all films
Hidden Agenda(1990)
Midcredits score: 78th percentile of all films
The Gathering Seed (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1983)
Willie's Last Stand (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1982)
United Kingdom (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1981)
The Spongers (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1978)
A Choice of Evils (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1977)
Days of Hope (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1975)
Crown Court (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1972)
Walt, King of the Dumper (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1971)
The Rank and File (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1971)
Play for Today (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1970)
The Big Flame (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1969)
ITV Saturday Night Theatre (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1969)
Half Hour Story (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1967)
The Lump (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1967)
Thirty-Minute Theatre (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1965)
The Wednesday Play (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1964)
Career shape
A full career of 19 titles from 1964 to 1995.
How do Jim Allen's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 90th percentile, the median of all 3; across a limited sample of 3 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 87th percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up3
Shape of the crowd
None of their 3 titles divides audiences: 2 are Crowd Pleasers.
- Universally Loved1
- Crowd Pleaser2
Reviewers score the dialogue 65/100 and the plot and story 58/100 in their films, across 3 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a writer.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does Jim Allen work with?
People who share at least 2 of Jim Allen's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Ken Loach shares the most, 3.
Directors
- Ken LoachShared titles: Land and Freedom (1995), Raining Stones (1993), Hidden Agenda (1990)See all 3 shared titles with Ken Loach
Composers, cinematographers and editors
- Jonathan MorrisShared titles: Land and Freedom (1995), Raining Stones (1993), Hidden Agenda (1990)See all 3 shared titles with Jonathan Morris
- Barry AckroydShared titles: Land and Freedom (1995), Raining Stones (1993)See all 2 shared titles with Barry Ackroyd
- Stewart CopelandShared titles: Raining Stones (1993), Hidden Agenda (1990)See all 2 shared titles with Stewart Copeland
Producers
- Rebecca O'BrienShared titles: Land and Freedom (1995), Hidden Agenda (1990)See all 2 shared titles with Rebecca O'Brien
- Sally HibbinShared titles: Land and Freedom (1995), Raining Stones (1993)See all 2 shared titles with Sally Hibbin
