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This is England '86

Now I don't usually go blogging about much on TV. Unless of course it happens to be A SUBLIME WORK OF ART in which case I feel I have to spread the word. Shane Meadows has long been one of my favourite directors. I nearly fell off my seat when I first watched A Room for Romeo Brass and from then on I was hooked. This is England '86 is basically a TV spin-off of the brilliant film, This is England. Three years have passed since the events depicted in the film - and episode one opens with Lol and Woody's wedding - which of course has to go wrong. The first few episodes are hilarious but hardly dark - but don't get too comfortable. What ensues will have you reaching for blunt instruments - any instruments - to hurl at one particular very, very dark character. Meadows has, in my opinion, the singularly most uncompromising, authentic voice in cinema  today. He just chooses to depict events and stories that really happen to people in this life. And it's not 'misery porn' either  - it's just life in the raw - and Meadows asks you to take or leave his version of it.

So if you missed this TV production - for some absolutely brilliant characterisation, acting, writing - check the show out on Channel 4's 40d. I think it will be around for a few more days. Otherwise, hopefully it will come out as a box-set.

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