If you scan Michael Winterbottom’s filmography, it’s clear he’s no slouch. He’s racked up 45 film and TV credits in his 32-year career thus far, dabbling in broad and varied genres, often with an experimental angleHe’s tackled the classic literary adap (Jude), an eraspanning musical biopic (24 Hour Party People), sci-fi (Code 46), docudrama (The Road To Guantanamo) and head-scratching meta-fiction (A Cock And Bull Story).
Steve Coogan is a regular collaborator; together the pair have made four films, and four series of The Trip (edited down and released internationally as films). Winterbottom’s films are often grounded in reality on one level or another, from the thinly fictionalised versions of Coogan and Brydon’s travelling dining companions, to In This World’s non-professional cast of Afghan refugees, to 9 Songs’ unsimulated sex.