Screenwriter of The Wind That Shakes The Barley, I Daniel Blake and new release, Sorry We Missed You, Paul Laverty spoke to Ryan Tubridy this morning about his long-time collaboration with director Ken Loach, the politicians at the heart of Brexit and the punishing realities of working in the gig economy.

Sorry We Missed You depicts one couple's seemingly futile attempts to balance work and family life while grappling with the economic injustices created by zero-hour contracts. Ryan remarked that he felt a sense of impending doom for the main character from the very start. The social consciousness that lies at the heart of all Laverty-Loach films is clearly evident in this story too. Paul responded, "the next one's a comedy, I swear Ryan."

The film follows a couple struggling to work their way out of debt. An opportunity for main character Ricky to run a franchise as a self-employed delivery driver seems to offer a way out, but the relentlessness of the schedule puts untold pressure on the family unit.

"The film begs the question, what is the point of work if you can't actually see your own children?"

Famous for an immersive approach to his research, Paul explained how getting access to his subjects for this project was particularly hard.

"These people are working so hard, such long hours, they're in a van, they're driving about and they're exhausted. So actually to find them, to speak to them, to spend time with them was really difficult."

Paul went on to describe how, during the making of I, Daniel Blake, he was stunned to see how many working families were reliant on food banks to sustain them. The research is as stark as it is shocking.

"Three out of four children living in poverty in the UK have at least one working parent. So that old contract where you worked and got yourself out of poverty, no longer exists. I think there's a massive existential crisis right at the heart of the workplace just now."

Ryan described the film as "grim but necessary" and as the men discussed the ripple effects of unstable work across families and the wider community, Paul was very clear that the solution to these issues, lies in action.

"We have to go back to radical questions. Communities have to demand of their politicians, that they're brave and have imaginative solutions to taking back control of our economies. If we don't do that, all we're doing is complaining."

You can listen back to Paul and Ryan's conversation in full, on The Ryan Tubridy Show here.

Jan Ní Fhlanagáin