The latest exploits of a group of disaffected British youths exploded on to the small screen last night in a haze of cigarettes, alcohol, glow sticks and Madchester-inspired music.
This Is England ’90 is the final spin-off series from Shane Meadows’ 2006-made film This Is England. The franchise has chronicled the lives of a group of working-class friends in the Eighties with, at times, unbearable honesty. Set seven years on from 1983, when the cast was originally introduced, the former punk gang were waving goodbye to Thatcher and saying an enthusiastic hello to acid house. And it seemed to suit them.
After all the harsh realities of earlier instalments (rape, murder and prison among them), things seemed to be looking up for Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) and the gang in 1990. Last seen sobbing in a hospital chapel, Woody (Joe Gilgun) and Lol (Vicky McClure) were now playing happy families. Michael Socha’s cheeky drug dealer Harvey was brilliant – blunt yet sharp (“you two are looking well… similar,” he tells a pair of Bros fans; “go drink some blood,” he shouts during a fight with a group of goths). Gadget (Andrew Ellis) had lost none of his “charm” either. While helping himself to school dinner leftovers, he asked dinner lady Lol: “Why do you always run out of chips? Everyone loves chips. Just make more chips and make people happy.” And bar new haircuts/colours and the odd fashion “update”, the rest of the gang were pretty much rubbing along as they always had.
Shaun, however, had not joined the happy club. Still weeping over his ex, Smell, he veered between desperately trying to hide his emotions and spectacularly failing. The performance was so compelling; his pain appeared so raw, so real, that I wanted to slide into the TV just to tell him it wasn’t. Seriously, somebody give the lad a plate of chips.
