After writing and directing 16 films since his debut in 1971, Mike Leigh, 83, has revealed that his next film is “likely” to be his last one due to health issues.

The three-time Bafta-winning filmmaker behind classic kitchen sink dramas said that making another film after his next one on the docket – Tender Loving Care – is “not going to be possible” or would be “very difficult”.

Leigh, whose films include Secrets & Lies and Vera Drake, has myositis, a rare autoimmune disease that causes chronic muscle inflammation.

It’s affected his mobility so much that he thinks he’ll be unlikely to make another film. During an interview for his forthcoming new film Tender Loving Care, starring his partner Marion Bailey and Widow’s Bay star Kate O’Flynn, Leigh was asked if it would be his swansong.

According to IndieWire, he replied: “Absolutely. I think very likely, yes. I mean, I know the girls don’t like to hear me say that, but I think that is the case.”

He continued: “I was lucky in making this last film – people were very helpful. You’ll see when I get up that my two friends all helped me to stand up. So I probably can’t do much more.”

He also suggested he won’t be pivoting to directing plays as that’s “even more physically demanding, strangely enough, than making a film, because on a film you can be moved around”.

Tender Loving Care – the plot of which is currently under wraps – will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September, with a UK release expected later this year or early 2027.

The director is known for his kitchen sink realism and depiction of working-class characters.

Leigh originally trained as an actor in the 1960s, but pivoted to writing and directing, which resulted in a series of televised plays and films for BBC Television, including Nuts in May (1976) and Abigail’s Party (1977), which starred his ex-wife Alison Steadman. The pair, who have two sons, were married for 28 years, from 1973 to 2001, but separated in 1995.

His first feature film, Bleak Moments, was released in 1971. In the 1990s, he released Life Is Sweet (1990), Naked (1993) – launching the career of David Thewlis – and Secrets & Lies (1996), for which he received two Oscar nominations for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay.

Leigh’s other notable credits include abortion drama Vera Drake (2004), Another Year (2010) and 2014’s Mr Turner, starring Timothy Spall as painter JMW Turner. His latest film, Hard Truths, reunited him with his Secrets & Lies co-lead Marianne Jean-Baptiste.