This is England '86

This is England '86 is a recent 4-part television drama continuation of the 2006 independent film This is England; both directed by Shane Meadows. The main characters remain the same from the original film, these protagonists being Shaun, Woody, Lol, Smell, Gadget and Meggie. It follows the story of this bunch of skinhead friends 3 years on, as they look for love, fun, jobs, motivation, and something to look forward to whilst rebelling in a way that reflects their opinions of their position in the hopeless class-ridden society created by 'Thatcherism'. The anti-social behaviour of the gang was sparked by the outrage of the lack of jobs and mass unemployment at the time, and their negative views on this.

In the words of the director...

"When I finished This Is England I had a wealth of material and unused ideas that I felt very keen to take further audiences seemed to really respond to the characters we created and out of my long standing relationship with Film4 and Channel 4 the idea for a television serial developed. Not only did I want to take the story of the gang broader and deeper, I also saw in the experiences of the young in 1986 many resonances to now recession, lack of jobs, sense of the world at a turning point. Whereas the film told part of the story, the TV serial will tell the rest."

Both the film and the new series have a large relevance to our own production. A lot of the aspects are very similar, such as the dress sense, and ideology of the characters and stereotypical ska fans. The first episode of this new series was aired on 7th September this year, and having watched just parts of this initial episode it is clear that, like the film, the culture of the characters (including the music taste, dress sense/costume, attitudes and even locations used) is extremely similar to those of a generic ska fan and the general ska genre itself. Hence why it is so appropriate to use as an intertextual reference of our own video.

Dressed in Doc Martens, suspenders and Fred Perry shirts, the look of the characters is reminiscent of the whole ska era/skinhead subculture and reflects greatly the image we are trying to achieve in our own production. This such similarity lead us to use This is England as a reference. See the resemblance?!?