Ken Loach is sitting next to me in Brighton, in a dark corner of a quiet, wood-paneled pub, sipping on orange juice. He’s looking fairly glum when he tells me how disappointed he is with the media. “The distractions and the smears against Labour, that’s a big problem,” he says. “The Guardian is at the forefront of these attacks. And it’s the most dangerous because it is read by people on the Left.”

That paper’s columnist Jonathan Freedland attacked Loach for having defended Corbyn from false accusations of antisemitism, accusing Loach of “lending a spurious legitimacy to Holocaust denial.” After Loach asked for a right to reply, the Guardian sat on it, then claimed it was too late to publish. But when I ask Loach how he feels about the Labour Party itself, reborn under Corbyn’s leadership, it’s another story altogether. “Hopeful,” he says, with a quiet smile.

After decades in the wilderness, and despite clouds on the horizon, it seems Loach — much like Corbyn himself — is finally enjoying his moment in the sun.