Hidden Agenda (1990)

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Ken Loach: This is a film set in the North of Ireland which was about the corrupting effect of the British presence in Ireland.

In this scene someone who had worked for the security forces and who had revealed various disreputable plots by the British is seized in Dublin in broad daylight. It is watched in horror by an American Civil Rights worker, played by Frances McDormand, who is engaged in trying to uncover some of the dirty tricks in Ireland. We shot it with a hidden camera on O'Connell Bridge in Dublin and, extraordinarily, a man was seized and bundled into a van in broad daylight. Apart from the horrified looks of the passers by that you can see, nobody did a thing.

Fran was like practically everyone we have worked with and has stayed a friend. When we were shooting Bread and Roses in Los Angeles, she very kindly lent me her iron so that I could do my washing on Sunday mornings.