Mark Kermode on… Danny Boyle, a director who defines British pop culture

As his dazzling debut, Shallow Grave, gets a 30th anniversary rerelease, here’s to an extraordinary career that ranges from Trainspotting to Slumdog Millionaire and that unforgettable London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony

Lancashire-born film-maker Danny Boyle holds a special place in the nation’s heart, having been responsible for not one but three defining moments in our recent pop-culture history. In 1996, his daringly inventive adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting changed the face of young British cinema, with star-making performances from the likes of Ewan McGregor, Kelly Macdonald and Robert Carlyle, and a magpie soundtrack (everything from Lou Reed and Iggy Pop to Pulp, Blur and Underworld) that out-hipped Pulp Fiction. I was co-hosting Radio 1’s film programme when Trainspotting hit UK cinemas, and Mary Anne Hobbs and I immediately ditched our opening station jingles in favour of the thumping drum intro to Lust for Life, which remained the show’s theme tune in perpetuity.

A decade later, Slumdog Millionaire (2008) scooped eight Oscars, including best picture and director, prompting the kind of ecstatic responses back home that had greeted Colin Welland’s famous “the British are coming!” speech for Chariots of Fire in 1982. Ironically, Boyle’s international hit had almost gone straight to DVD after its American distributors deemed it too challenging for theatrical audiences (despite being billed as “the feelgood film of the decade”, there’s a lot of slumdog before you get to the millionaire).