Mike Leigh: http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5410197415090549238&postID=6046922960727281363

And it all informs what happens. So it begins to do what it seems to me the job is. Which is, putting it at its crudest, to reproduce the real world with some kind of semblance of reality.
And not only that, but in looking at it and deciding how to shoot it and what it is I'm trying to say, I actually understand that world. I actually have taken the time and the patience and gone through the pain of the research to know what it is that we're dealing with. I suspect that it boils to no more than that in the end. If you look at any of the great films from around the world -- whether you look at Bunuel's "Los Olvidados," showing those kids on the streets, or at one of Ozu's family dramas. . . There's no question whether these guys know what they're filming. They know the world, they know the culture, they know who the people are. This other style you're talking about is people making films in a culturally and professionally, infantile, naive and ultimately presumptious way.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=tLW3PWiAnhIC&dq=mike+leigh+style&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=Vgs9SsqqGIOUjAeyjbkN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=14
quote - my films aspire to the condition of documentary. If you are a newsreel cameraman and you go and shoot a real event you know that the world exists whether in film or not.
this could suggest that Mike is saying that the hollywood films hide away from real life

Ken Loach style: http://allal-cinemagoer.blogspot.com/2008/02/ken-loach-film-director-of-realism-and.html

Ken Loach has remarkable techniques to direct his actors by not showing them the script until the last minute and that the technology of film shooting like lighting , sound and camera should not be felt consciously by these interpreters until something comes out of them, because authencity of reality as Ken Loach states, is hidden somewhere and that actors must reveal it to the audience through their skill and talent .

Ken Loach Critics: http://www.timeout.com/film/news/1200/

Critics here regularly accuse Loach of being preachy, banging the political drum or, maybe worst of all, lacking subtlety. It's often said that while the man is to be respected, his films are rarely to be enjoyed. (The vitality and unexpected breadth of life in Loach's film are perhaps overlooked, from Robert Carlyle's romance with a Nicaraguan exile in 'Carla's Song' to the experience of Hispanic janitors in 'Bread and Roses'. His films can be funny too – Ricky Tomlinson is vintage in 'Riff-Raff'.) For his part, Loach is a vocal critic of the critics, and dismisses most of his detractors as right wing and preoccupied with style and technique over content, 'they're all Thatcherites at heart'.

Book to look at

Ray Carney: the films of mike leigh

All or Nothing - Mike Leigh

All or Nothing is a 2002 drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh. Typical of Leigh's work, the film is set in present-day London, and revolves around three working-class families and the depiction of their everyday lives.

Ken Loach's style in sweet sixteen

Ken Loach has a very particular style which is characterised by the extreme realism of his films. He mostly works with non-professional actors who can speak the home dialect (here it's a pure Scottish accent). He often shows a hopeless society in which the main characters, after trying to escape, somehow get into a worse situation. Parallels can be thrown between his films, for example My Name Is Joe, in which the main character also accepts to deal in drugs in order to help friends. It's A Free World also shows the difficult situation of Angie, whose dream is to make more money at her job and therefore creates a working agency with day-workers.
Most of Loach’s films start with the very difficult social context of unemployment, or low-paid employment. His films seem to be the denunciation of the society which leaves a number of people behind and is unable to help them. Sweet Sixteen is one perfect example for Loach’s style, because the situation is shown through the eyes of a child, the central character.