Pieces of me: Mike Leigh

Mike Leigh, film director Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian

"In 1978, we got back from holiday in the Dordogne, I emptied the wine box, placed three-month-old Toby inside and photographed him on the table alongside a brown coffee pot" Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian

"Me as ringmaster: my 60th birthday present from David Plagerson, a distinguished toy-maker and childhood friend who lives and works in Devon" Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian

"The old Hampstead theatre, which lasted from 1964 to 2002, was very important for me, being home to Abigail’s Party, Ecstasy, Goose-Pimples, and Smelling a Rat. After the curtain call on its last night ever, everything was auctioned. I acquired these two seats" Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian

"I’ve been collecting metal flies for years. It’s fun to see who freaks out at them and who doesn’t" Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian

"I work individually with each actor to create the character, but they don’t make notes: I do. Each has his or her own, numbered reporter’s notebook according to when they start the rehearsals. The most famous things associated with me are my tiny pocket scripts, cut to fit my shirt pocket. They absorb sweat and weather and location-catering and fuck knows what. It’s great not to be cluttered with crap. Like scripts" Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian

"The poster from my first feature film in 1971, Bleak Moments. I’ve always had battles about posters, and I usually lose, but this, drawn by the illustrator Ken Laidlaw, was a rare early victory" Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian

"During the second world war my father, who has been dead now for 23 years, was an army doctor in Africa. Of the artefacts he brought back, this mask has been in my life forever" Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian

"Ronald Searle is a major influence. The earliest of these, Hurrah for St Trinian’s, was a sixth birthday present. I might have been a cartoonist, but then at the age of 12, on a snowy day in Manchester, the old guys carried the coffin downstairs at my grandfather’s funeral and I thought: this would make a great film — that’s what I want to do, make films" Photograph: Eammon McCabe/Guardian

"Camerimage is the name of the Polish cinematographers’ festival, now in Lodz but originally held in Torun. Legend has it that a musician once rid the town of frogs. Replicas are presented at the festival, and in 1999 my cinematographer Dick Pope and I were awarded joint frogs" Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian

"Leo, my younger son, is 27 and a film-maker. He illustrated these loo rolls a couple of years ago" Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian

"I had a hip replacement in 2000. My son Toby drew this. He has also designed the cover of the upcoming DVD box set of my films" Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian

"At the age of 42, after working in Australia, I backpacked alone for a month in China. I found this in a market in Chengdu, but the snow liquid leaked into my rucksack" Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian

"During the siege of Sarajevo, films were smuggled in and screened to keep spirits up. After the war, this became the Sarajevo film festival, which I attend regularly, and at which we present our Katrin Cartlidge Foundation award. On my first visit in 2000 I was taken with these chairs, painted by people to amuse themselves during the siege, and they insisted on presenting me with one" Photograph: Eamonn McCabe/Guardian