This Is England '86 (2010)

This Is England '86: The Series

I found the Shane Meadows movie This Is England to be surprisingly good - I'd never seen anything by him, and from the descriptions and films stills I'd seen, it looked a bit gritty and grim, so I was pleased that it was genuinely funny and enjoyable, though dealing with some very serious issues, not least of which was racism. 

The Channel 4 mini-series picks up the characters from the movie a couple of years later in 1986, and again the tone veers from laugh-out-loud characters and situations to incredible serious, harrowing scenes of rape and violence. It's a tough mix and it's one that is handled well. The characters are all instantly likeable, although I wouldn't want to be friends with them! It's a real ensemble affair, with Thomas Turgoose's Shaun, the lead in the movie, now left school and trying to find his way. Shaun's very sympathetic, and Turgoose plays him sweetly naive and as a bit of an underdog. His relationship with his mum, and his integration back into the old gang are fun to watch, and the various gang members are good value. 

This Is England ('83): The Movie

Woody, Milky, Smell, Kelly, Meggy, Banjo... it's hard to keep up with who's who sometimes, though all look incredibly distinctive, especially Smell, the interesting looking and sounding Rosamund Hanson. I know it's set in the '80's, but some of the fashions and hair styles seem utterly bizarre. Lol, played by Vicky McClure gets to lead on the more serious storylines, including her malfunctioning relationship with Woody, affair with Milky, and of course dealing with her creepy, rapey father, whose return to her life is very unwelcome.

I was only 2 in 1986, so I don't remember it that well (!), and I didn't live in such a run down area (though it's never clear where it's set, either north or south), but the whole thing feels very authentic - the use of news footage of the football, Thatcher and the Falklands helps place events in time and gives the characters lives context. Despite the abuse and casual violence, This Is England '86 has at it's heart a close-knit family of disparate individuals who look out for each other, and if there is a further series I'd like to join them to see how they're getting on.