Dave Johns gives ordinary men under pressure a sociability and humour that stop their troubles becoming their whole personality. His performance for Ken Loach is worth seeking out, even when the script pushes too hard.
Fi1m perspective
In I, Daniel Blake (2016), Dave Johns makes Dan someone we might enjoy talking to. His sociability matters as much as his anger, because we get to know a man whose troubles have not become his only subject. He is likeable without being required to charm us at every opportunity. The friendship with Hayley Squires's character gives that warmth somewhere to go, and the two make us care about their time together.
Johns began in stand-up in the late 1980s and had small television acting roles from the mid-1990s; Dan was his first major film role. That is a substantial change in the work, but the comic touch remains useful. He allows humour into a drama that could easily have left no room for it. Loach directed him to listen and find the truth in scenes, and Johns lets frustration build without turning each exchange into an outburst.
We were angry watching Dan ask for help, because Johns makes those requests so ordinary that the obstacles become intolerable. This is also where we most value his restraint: he gives us time to become angry ourselves. The script sometimes presses the case harder than it needs to, and the performance cannot make every piece of writing feel less insistent. Yet Johns and Squires give the film enough warmth and stubborn humour to make its distress worth facing. Our recommendation rests on the people they make us care about.
Further film work followed in The Keeper (2018), Fisherman's Friends (2019) and Blithe Spirit (2020). He has often been cast as working-class men and tradesmen, understandable given how little fuss he makes of playing someone under pressure. We would welcome another substantial lead that lets him be funny, patient and difficult. Start with Loach's film, provided warmth is not mistaken for a promise of an easy evening.
