Episode one reminded us of the joys (and occasional frustrations) of This Is England. It’s one of the least plot-heavy series of all time and anyone looking for labyrinthine storycraft might be better served elsewhere. What it does offer is our recent national past rendered in the shape of characters so expertly drawn they feel like old friends. There’s a degree of emotional intelligence in Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne’s writing that makes up for any longueurs in spades. Tonight, we’ve hit summer. The whole country is raving. And everyone wants in on the party. Some are luckier than others…
‘Large G&T please’
Kelly is heading off the rails. She’s stumbled out of an older stranger’s bed and into the pub. She pays for her drink and in so doing, lingers for a moment on a family photo in her wallet. Amidst all the banter, it’s sometimes possible to forget that Kelly and Lol’s family history is dynamite waiting for a detonator.
‘Who likes salmonella?’
Did we mention that This Is England 90 can sometimes drift a touch? The barbecue at Woody and Lol’s is perfectly amiable as a vignette of summer in England. But let’s be kind and say that it’s also a series of scenes that don’t really get us anywhere and depend entirely on the audience’s fondness for the characters to have any impact whatsoever. It’s perfectly well written and performed as far as it goes. But that isn’t very far. Some undercooked food, an arm-wrestling contest and a bit of a dance in the sun. Ho hum.
‘Cop off?’
Fortunately, tonight’s episode is a game of two halves. Harvey, Trev, Shaun, Gadget and Kelly are driving through the radiant English countryside. They meet the hapless Flip and Higgy whose car has broken down. They don’t find their rave exactly. But they do stumble upon a convoy of travellers having some sort of micro-festival in a field. And suddenly, the drugs kick in, to prodigious effect and we’re reminded what Shane Meadows does so well. It’s so hard to replicate drug experiences effectively on screen. But this is beautifully done; blurry yet lucid, intimate yet expansive, disorientating yet blissful. The scene also captures ecstasy’s line-in-the-sand effect – after you’d taken it for the first time and experienced the surfeit of openness and empathy it was capable of unleashing, it was impossible to believe that anything could be the same again. And depending on your circumstances, that could be a mixed blessing.
‘You miss him, don’t you?’
Shaun’s certainly finding himself transformed. His half pill has turned him into a charming, polite and curious young man. And so it is that he finds himself wandering into the caravan of an older woman on the convoy and unburdening himself emotionally to a mother-figure who isn’t his mum. Once again this scene feels pitch-perfect – typical of the cross-cultural encounters that the early rave scene sometimes enabled.
‘Tell me what’s up Combo?’
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the barbie has long since gone out. Woody and Milky are half-asleep on the sofa when the phone rings. Lol takes it upstairs. And just as well; it’s Combo and he’s got some news. As Lol tells Woody the following morning, Combo is approaching his parole and needs somewhere to stay. “He hasn’t got anyone”, explains Lol. “Well, we got a year of happiness” shrugs Woody phlegmatically. Poor Lol. Once again, she’s carrying everyone’s weight. And Vicky McClure animates her perfectly; a mixture of weary compassion and just plain weariness.
‘I’m a slag, Gadget’
As the rave gets tired and emotional, the second episode of This Is England 90 goes to the darkside. Kelly is wasted. She’s lured into a caravan containing three guys who ply her with smack and then horribly take advantage of her discombobulation. It’s a nightmarish flipside to the dreamy revelations enjoyed by her friends and brilliantly, devastatingly performed and directed. And as it unfolds, all she can hear is her father’s voice. The episode culminates in a tender morning-after scene where, as the sun comes up over countryside that looks almost reproachfully bucolic, Gadget does his best to reach her and falls heartbreakingly short.
Notes & Queries
Might Gadget be Shane Meadows’ surrogate character in This Is England 90? He’s dopey and endlessly put-upon but he’s also sensitive, emotionally literate and very kind. He’s always felt like incidental comic relief up to now but this might be the series where he comes into his own.
Get ready for Kelly v Combo - who, lest we forget, took the rap for murdering her rapist father Mick. This is surely where this is going. And it could be grim.
No Fools Gold tonight. Instead, there’s a cursory nod to the Stone Roses’ vapid, underwhelming follow-up One Love which plays as the gang drive towards the rave. Which is honest, at least.
“I’m not feeling anything, Harvey”. Spoken by Flip, approximately three seconds after dropping his first E. The funniest line of the series to date?
There were a few slightly quizzical comments about the period details last week. For my money, Meadows gets them pretty much spot on. This series isn’t set at fashion’s bleeding edge; last week’s youth club Madchester night was meant to be a bit crap; this is provincial, run-down, post-industrial England not London or Manchester. Things happened gradually. Some people were still rocking the remnants of Mod fashion. There was still a lot of stonewashed denim and soft-metal around. Britain’s major cities might have moved on fast. But pre-internet, the pace of cultural change in the rest of the country was often glacial.
That said, Woody is cause for mild concern on that score. Sleeve tattoos? Maybe just about. But a beard? Surely only geography teachers had beards back in 1990? And William Onyeabor? Sure, his records were made in the 70s and 80s. But were people really listening to the Nigerian synth-funk maverick at barbecues in the east Midlands in 1990? Or is Shane Meadows indulging in a bit of poetic licence here?
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