Alison Steadman, born in 1946, married Mike Leigh in 1973 (they divorced in 2001). She played Beverly in Abigail’s Party (pictured), which started life at London’s Hampstead theatre. Her Wendy, in Life is Sweet (1990), is a “survivor” with a similar line in menacing diminutives (“D’you want a little sandwich?”). Drippy, new-age-before-her-time Candice Marie in Nuts in May (1976) is her favourite Leigh role Photograph: BBC
Among her five Mike Leigh films, Ruth Sheen, born in 1952, was Shirley in High Hopes (1988, pictured), then in 2002 Maureen in All or Nothing (in which she came up with the winning line: “I’ll iron anything – within reason”) and villainous, bespectacled black marketeer Lily in Vera Drake (2004). Like Shirley and Gerri – her therapist character in Another Year – she is a dedicated gardener Photograph: Everett Collection/Rex Features
Her performance as Vera Drake (above) earned an Oscar nomination and won a Bafta for 54-year-old Staunton. Vera sang like a lark, put on the kettle and “helped” young girls “in trouble”. It took six months to bring her to life; Janet, in Another Year, took three weeks. “I don’t think of my characters as types. Maybe they are about things buried in me … But aren’t we lucky to have these parts?” Photograph: PR
As Barbara in Meantime (1984), Bailey, 50,was a breath of fresh air in what is one of Leigh’s darkest movies, trying to organise her nephew to haul himself out of unemployment. Bailey’s subsequent performance as alcoholic Carol (above, middle) in All or Nothing (2002) was amazing. Working with Leigh, she says, “little, magical things happen – it’s rather like a novel” Photograph: Allstar Picture Library
Karina Fernandez, born in 1978, played Rosita, the hilarious flamenco teacher in Happy Go Lucky, who, during a rant about expressing passion through dance, dissolves into furious tears about her own love life. In Another Year she is the unassailably nice Katie (above). “It is impossible to generalise about Mike Leigh’s women (or his men) because he is always so specific and has no attitude.” Photograph: PR
She was Hortense (above, right) in Secrets and Lies (1996), for which she was nominated for best supporting actress in both the Golden Globe and Academy awards. Her “total shock” was to do with “the richness of the work … you have this inner world going on all the time.” Jean Baptiste, 43, sees something of the therapist in Leigh though “It is the characters in therapy, not the actors,” she emphasises Photograph: PR
She won a Golden Globe for her irrepressibly cheerful Poppy (above) in Happy-Go-Lucky (2008). “I just loved her,” she says. Her other Leigh roles are less light-hearted: “spunky, sultry, streetwise” Samantha in All or Nothing and posh, tormented Susan in Vera Drake. Hawkins, 34, says Leigh instils a discipline when working: “There is you, the character and a line in between. You can get back to yourself" Photograph: Alamy
Blethyn, 64, says: “I owe my career to Mike Leigh.” Her first role for him was as Gloria in the 1980 BBC2 play Grown-Ups, but she will be best remembered in Secrets and Lies (1996) as Cynthia (above, right), the middle-aged woman contacted by the black daughter she gave up for adoption 30 years earlier. Leigh’s work, she says, makes us look twice: “You see that nonentity in the corner in a different light and wonder: what is that person’s story?” Photograph: PR
Cartlidge (1961–2002) was in three Leigh films: Naked (1993), Career Girls (1997) and Topsy-Turvy (1999), about Gilbert and Sullivan and The Mikado. In Naked she gave a beautiful, unsettling performance as Sophie (pictured above). Career Girls is an engaging exploration of a friendship between two students and their shared weekend 10 years later. Leigh has a special place in his heart for Career Girls – as well as for Cartlidge herself Photograph: Ronald Grant Archive
She has been in seven Mike Leigh productions: Grown-Ups (1980), High Hopes (1988), Secrets and Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), Vera Drake (2004) and Another Year. On her role in Another Year (pictured with Peter Wight) , Manville, 54, says: “Mary is a pain and behaves inappropriately. Leigh allows the audience to like Mary – and forgive her” Photograph: Rex Features
