This is England 86

This is England ’86 is a mini-series created by the same writer and director of the 2006 film, This is England. It’s a story that follows on from the film, which was about a group of apolitical skinheads who were divided by a few nationalist individuals within the group. This is England ’86 is set a full three years after the events of the film, and it deals with all of the characters and how their lives have changed.

I had never actually seen This is England before I watched the first episode of This is England ’86, which may have slightly dampened my initial thoughts on the show. However, right after the first episode had aired, I went and got my hands on the film and watched it as soon as possible. I think, as a general review, This is England ’86 can be concluded as a brilliant follow-up to the 2006 film, and fans of the original film will absolutely love this TV series.

But I think it’s definitely beneficial to talk about the TV show in more depth, as it’s own entity, but a lot of the things I am about to talk about are also found in the original film too. First of all, we have the themes that are covered throughout This is England ’86: domestic abuse, sexual violence, incest, love, marriage, affairs, and so on. The show really does cover a wide range of themes that all overlap each other throughout the series. But not only does the show deal with a lot of themes, but it fits into several different genres: comedy, drama, thriller, etc. It really does cover a lot of bases, which would usually mean the show is too broad and you cannot relate to anything that is occurring on screen, but this isn’t the case for This is England ’86, at all.

The single most important thing about This is England ’86 is the characters. The reason why the show can cover so many different things in a short space of time is the characters involved. They are all important, however major or minor they may seem. You build a connection with everybody, both as a group of skinheads and as individuals within the group. If the This is England franchise is about one thing, it’s about a group of people living in England in the eighties, and because of that, the characters have to be the forefront of the show, and even though both the film and TV series deal with really gritty and nasty events, I do feel the characters remain the main focus of the show, and that’s why everything affects the viewing audience who have built a connection with the characters on screen. And thankfully all of the actors do a great job of playing their characters. You get the impression that Shane Meadows allowed the actors to really get into their parts, and come up with quirky nuisances themselves.

This is England ’86 also succeeds on a technical level, especially the editing. A show that deals with the themes that This is England ’86 does needs to get the pace right, and this one absolutely does. Much like the film, the tension is always increasing right up to the very end, until an explosion-like scene occurs, where everything comes to a head. As tempting as it would be to have the build-up scenes edited slowly and calmly, and the climax to be fast and furious, this isn’t how it works here; quick editing is used sparingly, and it’s never used as an obvious tool either. In fact, the most notable use of quick editing is party scenes, and it’s only used to show everybody having a good time at once. The most brutal and disturbing scenes are shot very slowly, often without many cuts at all, which increases the tension and uneasiness already being felt by the viewer. In fact, in one of the most horrifying scenes, the camera doesn’t cut away for nearly a full three minutes, which is a very long time for actors to be the sole focus of what’s on screen.

And the use of music is first class. During the final, climatic scenes, and this was the same in the film, the audio from the event is either drowned out, or completely removed, by a slow, peaceful piece of contemporary classic music by Ludovico Einaudi. This deliberately slows down these intense moments to make them last longer, despite the viewer not wanting to see these things for too long.

As a whole, This is England ’86 was a brilliant piece of British TV. It was an adventurous prospect to turn what could have easily been a film sequel into a fully fledged TV mini-series, but I really do think this paid off. It was one of the most enjoyable TV shows that I have watched this year.

Andrew Cadman