In his uncompromising TV trilogy,Shane Meadows captures a changing Britain through the pills, thrills, and fights and failings of a bunch of ex-skinhead Midlanders
Politically charged,and flashing between scenes of anarchic humour and horrific violence, Shane Meadows’s 2006 film This Is England took a bittersweet notice 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, and 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 yarn in 1986, when being a skinhead has gone out of fashion. The mod notice is in and everyone’s talking about the Jam, or 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 scheme to marry, or but he leaves her at the altar.
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Source: theguardian.com