Shane Meadows' This Is England gains a sequel in the shape of a four-episode miniseries on Channel Four.

Came out of left field, this one. Looking forward to it though. Anyone else a fan of the movie or of Meadows?

A Room For Romeo Brass is brilliant, I know that much. Never got around to seeing This is England, for some reason. Nor did I see Somers Town, which I think should be remedied at some point.

Dead Man's Shoes and This is England were very very good. Somers Town is very slight but worth watching. The talk around the filming and funding of Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee was interesting from a low-budget film-making perspective but the final results were pretty poor.

As it happens I have a signed poster for Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee that I don't particularly want - if anyone wants it and the postage isn't too exorbitant they are more than welcome to it.

I recommend Small Time.... if you can find it.

Twenty Four Seven is very good as well. Even with Bob Hoskins strange version of a Nottingham accent.

Just watched Dead Mans Shoes on Film4 and i'll also say that its very good. Made a bit eerier for me as I know the area where it was filmed pretty well. I also used to know a fair few people like the gang in that film. Arseholes the lot of them, not sure they deserve what happens to those in the movie though.

So, watched episode three last night.

Spoiler hiding below (no longer hiding - no-one else seems to be bothering).

That rape scene may have been one of the most disturbing telly/film things I’ve ever seen. It was really fucking horrible, but I got the feeling, and that’s all I could have, that it was extremely realistic.
It was the mundanity, I think that made it so awful and true.

It was kind of strange in that the two characters have been fairly peripheral so far – especially the female one. I don’t know either of their names and could only “name” them in their relationships to other characters.

I’ve found the show really good so far – but there’s till something that doesn’t quite ring true about the leader of the soccer casuals – amusing though he is.

Dead Mans Shoes is one of my favourite films; utterly chilling. twentyfourseven and A Room for Romeo Brass are up there too, and This Is England I really enjoyed: it was filmed around the area of Nottingham I was living in at the time, which made me feel a little bit special when I saw it in the cinema.

As for the TV show...

**Spoilers up to episode 3**

The first couple of episodes were a bit fluffy, I thought. Well acted, funny (particularly the scooter gang- and I think the leader's pretty convincing; he's got the vocal tics of a smalltime bully just right). But there was a bit too much Skins style partying and far too much Shameless style 'The poor, eh? Might not have money, but at least they've got each other!' (it's co-written by one of the Shameless writers, I think).

Last night's was incredible, though. The Trudie-Gary thing was brilliant and the rape scene was particularly 'good', if a rape scene can be good: far from sexing it up as TV can often do (man jumping out from dark alley) it perfectly captured the frozen, numbing horror and, in a horrible way, its banality (it looked no different from a lot of other scenes of shit sex we're shown). I also think Lol's breakdown is superbly documented- it makes me wonder what some people who've been shitty to me might have been through, makes me think when I judge someone. And you can't ask much more of a TV programme than that.

I used to work with Milky's sister, if I'm allowed a brief claim to fame.

I telly you what, watching the first half of Boardwalk Empire and then this was very strange - i.e. Stephen Graham in two slightly different roles.

This was excellent though. The ending was just incredible and the

I can't fucking stand Lol. That's all I have to say.

Milky's tache is fucking horrible it must be said. Looks like something out of the chuckle brothers. Great performance from "the" dad, guy looked rapey/sinister from the word go, you just knew Lol weren't bullshitting. Only other role I can recall that chap being in was, again, a bastard in "London to Brighton". Bet the actors a really nice guy.

Rape scene was grim, the lines were truly disturbing too, "don't play games with me" etc. Made out she was asking for it, then hung his head in shame or something at the end, very weird and disturbing indeed.

That girl hangin out with the main youth from the movie appears to have lost her chin, her accent too has become significantly more jarring.

Still nor sure how combo's prison mate fits in. Proper intimidating racist fella in the movie, and now couldn't take on a few kids on scooters in tracksuits. A lot seems to have happened to some of the characters in 3 years, others fuck all.

Next episode should be good tho, not been this exited about a next installment on TV for a good few years.

The rape scene was utterly horrible: "I'll give you the best fuck you've ever had or the worst" I paraphrase. Just showed how utter terrible and mundane rape can be. Fucking with her head too so that she feels guilty.

I have some questions

1. Where is this set? Somewhere with docks, but I can't tell if it's meant to be Sheffield or Nottingham, I can't pick out the accents. Is it deliberately vague?

2. There seems to be a lot of anachronisms: "Innit" in the North in the 80s - really? "Wicked" for good? Flying of the St George's flag during world cup, was it not more the Union Flag for English fans those days? Finally Shaun gets a job selling videos in Mr Sandhu's job and Sandhu describes it as the future. But Video shops had been established for about 5 years by then.

3. Episode 4 looks serious or else it is going to fail. There are lots of unresolved plot lines: Lol and Woody; Lol's Dad and the rape and - most intriguingly - what happens when Combo finally makes his appearance?

I predict that Combo will kill Lol's Dad and run away with her...

Just watched the 3rd one. The rape one. Very disturbing. And I just didn't see it coming. Me and Kelly had seen the film when they showed it on Channel 4 the other week. She found the graphic violence in the scene where Milky was beaten up very hard to take. Don't worry, I said, the TV series won't be as bad as that, they're always watered down versions of the films, aren't they?

Well, the first 2 episodes weren't exactly Kids from Fame but, like Fatter, Hipper said - it seemed to be following the Channel 4 template of Skins and Shameless. So, the rape scene at the end of episode 3 came really out of the blue for us both and I found myself having to apologise to her once again.

Even so, despite the curveball we're still loving the series and are going to watch this week's episode. Kelly's desperate for Lol's dad to get his comeuppance. Let's hope he does as we could do with a feelgood episode after last week.

Regarding the accents/location. The accents do seem to be all over the place, don't they? I thought it was set in Nottingham but there's been mention of 'the docks.' (Isn't the young actor from Grimsby?) Also the bus they all get onto in episode 1 is a green Yorkshire one.

Banana Banana wrote:
1. Where is this set?

In the first episode, they got onto a 'Yorkshire Rider' bus, which means it's somewhere in West Yorkshire.

You're right the accents are all over the place, but it didn't bother me at all.

It can't be West Yorkshire because there was a scene when Shaun stands on a beach. I think it's deliberately meant to be vague and supposed to be broadly representative of northern Britain in the 80s.

The anachronisms I find a little annoying because they'd require very little research to get right. If you're specifically setting a drama in 1986 you might as well try and be accurate. The same thing occurred in the film which was set in 1982. The mutation of the skins from apolitical rude boys to NF supporters occurred in the late 70s. By 1982 they were a fading force.

I don't mind the mish mash of accents so much.

Agree with everyone else about the rape scene. Really distressing to watch. Haven't watched last night's yet, but they have a lot to resolve in an hour.

Apparently, Meadows intends to do another series, depending on how well this one is received.

I felt it was meant to be more yer East Midlands, but I suppose it's really just Anytown, Provinceshire.

And the scene last night had me shaking.

Even though I could tell what was going to happen.

I can't fucking stand Lol. That's all I have to say.


The height of wrongness, she's great.

"And the scene last night had me shaking."

Oh my God, it was absolutely harrowing, wasn't it? Kelly had to leave the room but she was desperate to see what was going on so she watched my reaction through a crack in the door. I was physically recoiling in horror.

A great, great series. The acting and writing has been superb. (With the performances as good as they were, the mish mash of accents was a very small price to pay). Not sure if the quality could be kept up for another series but who knows?

I agree about the anachronisms though, and, as meregreen has said, it wouldn't have taken a lot of time to research plus, I'm assuming Meadows must have lived through this period anyway.

'Small Time' is on Film 4 tonight.
Well, tomorrow morning at 0230 UK time.
Worth watching if you haven't already seen it.
Followed by 'Where's The Money Ronnie?' an early Meadows short

'88 and '90 to come.