Politically charged, and flashing between scenes of anarchic humour and horrific violence, Shane Meadows’s 2006 film This Is England took a bittersweet look at life for a bunch of skinheads growing up in the Midlands in the early 1980s. This lost gang of kids are coming of age in Thatcher’s Britain, getting drunk and falling in and out of love, while a tide of nationalism rises ominously in the background.
The TV series picks up the story in 1986, when being a skinhead has gone out of fashion. The mod look is in and everyone’s talking about the Jam, the Housemartins, and Maradona’s “hand of God” moment, crushing England’s World Cup hopes. Shaun is finishing school and wondering what his future holds. Woody and Lol plan to marry, but he leaves her at the altar.
The film was dominated by Stephen Graham’s performance as the far-from-run-of-the-mill hooligan Combo, who could be charismatic and even soft-centred, though not when he is threatening an Asian shopkeeper with a machete. In 1986, the focus shifts to Lol and her stepfather Mick. We quickly learn that he has been abusive in the past. Vicky McClure won a Bafta for her portrayal of Lol and some scenes, such as when Mick tries to rape her, are stomach-churningly hard to watch.
This abuse storyline is given centre stage in all three series – 86, 88, 90 – and the effect is heart-stopping every time, in particular one spectacular scene around the dinner table when the whole messy truth comes out. Some scream, others weep, most shuffle awkwardly. It feels like all of This Is England distilled into one scene. Combo makes a return, too, which will make viewers who had him pegged as nothing but a raging nationalist think again after he takes the fall for Lol when she goes to extreme lengths to solve her problem with Mick.
This Is England isn’t perfect. Too often, the action lurches from jovial banter to some of the most harrowing TV of recent years. A more subtle blend of the two might have been better, rather than entire episodes of unrelenting bleakness. Thank goodness for 1990. Rave culture is thriving and the gang travel to an unknown field in search of the night of their lives. Unfortunately, they take a wrong turn and wind up at a commune for new-age travellers.
It’s a quintessentially This Is England moment: setting off in pursuit of drug-induced hedonism but ending up huffing under the bonnet of an old Vauxhall off the M25. Still, Shaun makes the most of it, taking half a pill and finding himself pouring his heart out to a middle-aged woman in a caravan, while the rest of the gang find peace and love in their own ways.
Lighter in tone, This Is England 90 brings Meadows’s tumultuous and emotionally exhausting trip to a close. Or does it? Jack Thorne, the writer, has said he would be interested in bringing the gang back for another adventure or two. This Is England 92? 98? 2000? Let’s hope so.
