Difficult times are afoot and Episode 3 is poised for a tense climax in the series that continues to hold viewers on the edge of their seats.
The Drama Continues
In the grip of World Cup fever, the gang of This Is England 86 find themselves more preoccupied with the complex infatuations and escalating aggression affecting their daily lives. Hounded by her abusive father, Lol continues to play dangerously on the trust of those closest to her, whilst a street-bound Shaun begins to come to terms with the recent adjustments to his home life. During the deciding fate of England in a World Cup qualifier, a harrowing incident reveals a monstrous nature and readies an inevitable series of deadly consequences.
Meadows Returns to the Camera
This is the first Episode to be directed by Shane Meadows, and marks a brief departure from his long running and well documented career in filmmaking. Since the mid 90’s, he has made over 30 short films, both comical and serious, and ranging in time length anywhere between half an hour to 45 seconds. His first feature length, Small Time, was made in 1996- a low budget comedy that stared himself in one of the lead roles. Only a year later in 1997, his urban drama Twenty Four Seven gained critical appraisal and a BAFTA nomination, and this escalating respect continued in 1999 with his second personally reflective drama A Room For Romeo Brass.
Meadows success gained further heights in the following decade, first going back to an older heart-warming comedy style in 2002 with Once Upon A Time In the Midlands. But it wasn’t until 2004 that he made his darkest and most powerful film to date, Dead Man’s Shoes. The film was unique tale of revenge that broke new grounds in the genres of drama, thriller and suspense, and enhanced the career of long time friend of Meadows (and actor in many of his films) Paddy Considine, who this time around, portrayed a terrifyingly convincing vengeful brother.
With his directorial name well established, Shane Meadows continued to stun audiences in 2006 with This Is England. Since then, he has directed drama Somers Town (released in 2008), and written and directed the first movie of his long running comedy saga, Le Donk & Scor-Zay-Zee, which was released last year in 2009.
Meadows’ Trademark Style
Shane Meadows’ unique technique of filmmaking is themed largely on his own real life experiences, particularly in films such as This Is England, Dead Man’s Shoes, and Twenty Four Seven. Facing a turbulent childhood, Meadows’ experience of growing up, living as a bystander for several tragedies and wrong doings whilst frequently landing himself in trouble, are reflected in his stories.This gives a realistic and unique insight into the lives and minds of the many troubled characters of urban Britain, and portrays an intelligent observation of real-life situations, where lines between right and wrong are often severely blurred.
From a technical aspect, Meadows has managed to obtain a feeling of natural realism in his movies by using a mixture of professional actors and people with virtually no acting experience. The prime example of this can be seen in This Is England, with lead star Thomas Turgoose (who played main character Shaun). During his troubled early teens, a young Turgoose was casted solely on his confidence and fortitude during the audition process, as these very same traits were the essential ingredients of the personality of Shaun.
As with a number of other newcomers to the acting world, Meadows has managed to obtain powerful and realistic performances by instructing his inexperienced cast to do nothing else besides be themselves (or at least one aspect of their personality) and with improvisation being a well documented component of memorable performances, adhering to a written script only under very basic guidelines.
In addition, natural fly-on-the wall camera shots, unencumbered by copious editing, creates a powerful feeling of tension that gives viewers an almost first hand view of the transpiring activities. Particularly in this episode of This Is England 86, the mixture of hard hitting performances and skilled directing renders many moments of this drama purely unforgettable, even if they are deliberately difficult to watch.
Channel 4 Help Page
Incidentally, immediately following the ending to this episode, Channel 4 televised contact details of a specially made helpline, available to anyone watching who may be personally affected by any of the subjects depicted in the episode.
Ashley Jacob - I'm 28 and currently residing in Bath, England with my son Caleb and my girlfriend Julie. Since my days of childhood, music and elaborate ...
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