This Is England ‘86

With This is England '86, British director Shane Meadows returns to his most satisfyingly realised set of characters, first encountered in his 2006 feature film This Is England.

This four-part Channel 4 series sees the return of the entire principal cast to reprise their roles as we are reintroduced to them three years on. Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) has sat his final exams and, unemployed, he realizes (with some prompting from his mother) that the responsibilities of adulthood are just around the corner. Woody (Joe Gilgun) and Lol (Vicky McClure) are preparing for their imminent nuptials, whilst Gadget is looking for romance in all the wrong places, but it is the return of Lol’s father and the uncomfortable emotions this provokes that acts as the dramatic centre of the series. All of which takes place against the backdrop of the World Cup, the fallout from the Falklands War and Thatcher’s decimation of the working class.

Written by Meadows himself in collaboration with Jack Thorne (Skins), the scripts are by turns whimsically lighthearted and devastatingly brutal in their depiction of violence and yet the juxtaposition never feels jarring or forced. As beautifully modulated as the writing is and as exquisitely directed and shot as it is, it is the uniformly superb acting that separates the show from the type of exploitative fare produced by ITV - these are real people with real human complexities.

This Is England ’86 feels like a landmark in British television, to be filed alongside Our Friends In The North. Meadows really should be cherished and encouraged to make a further series.



Released on DVD on 11th October 2010 by 4DVD.

> Buy the DVD on Amazon.

Reviewed by Sam Monk.