The success of US films at our box office is not necessarily a matter of taste. It's largely a distribution issue. People don't necessarily like McDonald's more than anything else they eat, but if that's what's on the high street and almost thrust down their throats, it is hard to go to the wholefood restaurant round the corner.

I think we make too many films for around £3m in Britain and there is absolutely no mechanism to distribute them. I would like to see some of the lottery money go into establishing a medium or long-term mechanism for finding a space in the multiplex for a British film.

When I started in the early 1990s everyone made films for the BBC or Channel 4 at the £1m budget level. If they did well they would break out and go to cinemas. TV could take the initiative to reclaim that level of British film. But TV drama has deteriorated massively since the 1970s and 1980s.

I would employ eight really sparky directors and top quality writers and churn out material about our society, culture and times. If we make films that interest us passionately, they will interest others.

I would like to see a really British studio that could make eight films a year, financing them itself, with the financial stamina to weather the failures and wait for the hits. UK funding is shockingly bad. Film Four has closed, Granada Films has closed, Working Title is effectively a US studio in the UK. It is hard to get films made.

When I worked on a film in the US one of the distinguishing features of the crew was their confidence. They worked all year round, every year. There is a stop-go economy in British film culture, where every two or three years a renaissance is announced. We never really have the continual work that gives the critical mass to create real confidence.

· Roger Michell, British director of Notting Hill and The Mother, was interviewed by Angelique Chrisafis