This Is England 86: The Verdict

Three years on from the searing drama of This Is England, Shane Meadows returned to Grimsby and his familiar cast of skinheads and outcasts as Channel 4 broadcast the televisual follow up to the Bafta winning film. It was highly anticipated and much talked about... did it cut the mustard or prove that the old adage about ‘never going back’ is true?

Set during World Cup 86, the focus has shifted from turbulent teen Shaun (the wonderful Thomas Turgoose) to the shifting dynamics in the relationship between Woody (Joe Gilgun) and Lol (Vicky McClure). Thankfully Milky (Andrew Shim) seems to have survived his savage beating at the hands of Combo (Stephen Graham) and takes his place in a full complement of characters from the original movie.

Revisiting familiar characters ought to be fraught with danger, but here it’s accomplished with aplomb. Thankfully there has been emotional and physical development in everyone – although, as a unit, the characters are still as ridiculous and over the top as the audience would expect. For some, early eighties skinhead culture has given way to gothic chic or New Romantic haircuts, but it’s all believably done.

That the ensemble cast functions so well as a unit can be attributed to the working method which Meadows has instilled in his talented cast and crew and the bond which has clearly grown between them. Promotional interviews with Meadows & McClure and Gilgun & Turgoose revealed a group of friends with enormous respect and admiration for each others’ strengths and abilities. In joking and out-and-out fawning over each other demonstrated that the love shown on camera extends far beyond the edges of the TV screen.

Much of the dialogue on the series (as with al Meadows productions) was heavily improvised. In a scene where banter and friendly insults fly around at a hundred miles an hour this kind of approach yields a far more naturalistic style of speaking – the experience of having played the characters means that the language of the gang drips easily from the actors’ lips from the outset.

The first two episodes of the series demonstrated a deftness of touch and some fine comic set pieces – not least a rag-tag journey to the ‘church’ for the aborted wedding of Woody and Lol and a bullying gang of moped riders forcing Shaun to call the object of their desire a ‘fat dog’. But as is often the case with Shane Meadows, these scenes are undercut with an affecting poignancy. Meggy’s (Perry Benson) heart attack on the toilet as Woody fails to deliver his vows was the first time the heartstrings were tugged in this way – and certainly would not be the last.

The themes of This Is England 86 have obvious parallels with society today: recession, widespread unemployment and disaffected youth. But the thread which ties these themes together and draws the audience in is the spirit of friendship and love which the protagonists have for one another. Without it, the series would fall apart – belief in the characters underpins everything and allows the story to take us from almost farcical comedy to harrowing emotion and back again remarkably quickly. This is most notable in the relationship between Woody and Lol – it’s built on absolute love but flounders on the rocks of insecurity, financial hardship, infidelity and family secrets. It’s a far more realistic representation of a young couple in love than most TV series can hope to portray and for that much of the credit can be attributed to Joe Gilgun – an extremely charismatic actor with a real flair for naturalistic comedy.

After drawing the audience back into the world of 1986, the tension and emotion were ramped up in the second two episodes. The return of Lol’s father Mick (Jonny Harris) brought a broodingly menacing presence to proceedings and as the character assumed a larger role in proceedings, it became more and more obvious that a dark secret was festering at the heart of his relationship with Lol. Sensitively played between Harris and McClure, their confrontations became more intense throughout the series, culminating in the inevitably tragic eruption which drew the series to a close.

With multiple narratives running across each episode, one of the techniques Meadows employs is to juxtapose action and emotions across multiple scenes. It’s jarring and confusing for the audience as the focus switches from gritty scenes of sexual violence to a happy crowd downing beers as Gary Lineker smashes a hat-trick past Poland. And that’s exactly how it’s intended. Every sense is heightened and just as you laugh the loudest an icy cold blade is pushed into your guts. Powerful stuff indeed.

Framed beautifully, exterior shots revealed a grey town and a lack of hope. But within the greyscale landscapes of high-rises and boarded up terraces live a colourful cast of characters who make their own fun as they dream their dreams and refuse to worry about the future. It’s something that anyone from a similar town or satellite suburb can relate to. And beneath all of that lurks something darker still – the suppressed secret which festers, waiting to reveal itself and derail the lives of everyone involved. That the secret here is sexual abuse and rape makes it all the more powerful when the slow-burning fuse finally ignites and blows up in the faces of Lol, her family, Woody and, ultimately, the returning Combo.

The most powerful scene of the series started with an enormously long take as Lol confronted her father. Without the breaks provided by conventional cutting, the tension was allowed to build slowly. Lol’s cigarette disappeared in real time and with it came the sense that once the smouldering butt was crushed, Lol’s bravado would be similarly extinguished. And so it proved - the breathy dialogue replaced by an amateurishly wielded hammer. As Lol was thrown to the floor, the long take broke to be replaced by a handheld camera focusing tightly on the characters, moving in and out of focus as if to give a view from the eyes of the participants. It was a visceral piece of film-making, undercut by a simple piano score and almost unbearably tense. It was an acting masterclass from the two protagonists and must’ve been extremely physically and mentally gruelling for all involved. Unflinchingly realistic, it was the first time in the series that such a scene hadn’t been intercut with happenings elsewhere and this gave it a singularity and depth of emotion which rightly marked it out as the watershed moment.

The bravery of all involved in this scene and many others in This Is England 86, along with the magnificent ensemble cast, impeccably selected music and universal themes made it the finest British production to be seen on television in years. We can only hope that many of the cast go onto achieve similar success elsewhere and that Shane Meadows continues to produce thought-provoking and powerful dramas such as this – for cinema or television – for years to come.