This Is England ’86 (Shane Meadows, 2010)

In this post I will be looking at how the director, Shane Meadows, is trying to make the audience feel when watching This Is England ’86, and how he achieves it.
This Is England ’86 is the continuation of the original film, This Is England. It was shown as a series containing four hour-long episodes, rather than as a film. This allowed for more time for the character’s personalities and stories to grow and progress, creating more empathy between the audience and the characters.

Like the film, the television series of This Is England follows the lives of Shaun, Lol, Woody, Milky, and the rest of the gang. Some of the more minor characters from the film now take a bigger role though, particularly Trev, who was barely even named in the film. The series focuses more on Trev because of a shocking rape scene; Lol’s father, Mike, who also wasn’t in the original This Is England film, rapes Trev, shortly after the viewer finds out that he used to abuse Lol when she was younger. Combo also comes back in this series; although the film made it seem as though we had seen the last of him, he returns by crashing into Shaun’s house, drunk, before passing out. Despite this entrance, events later in the series show that he seems to have left most of his old ways behind him.

 Shaun takes a relatively small role in This Is England ’86, considering the film was based completely around him, with only a small insight to the lives of the rest of the gang. This time around, Lol seems to be the main focus, as every situation links back to her; the failed wedding, the return of Combo, the introduction of her father, the fact she cheats on Woody with Milky, his own best friend… Yet, despite these unacceptable acts, by the end of episode four when she kills her own father, we are practically cheering her on. This can only be credited to the superb writing and acting.
Lol has a tough time during This Is England ’86, and the way Meadows shows this makes the audience feel sympathetic towards her. Meadows shows her at her lowest moments, in an attempt to justify her later actions towards her father.

 We watched This is England ’86 in class, and despite the fact it was not the ideal circumstances to watch something so emotional and shocking, I think everyone still got completely absorbed into it. When the lights were turned back on, particularly after the rape scene, everyone was silent. Throughout the scene, I felt angry and shocked, and immediately felt sympathy for Trev, even though she was barely seen in the series before this. Her vulnerability and fear is so intense, and shown incredibly well through the acting and the way the scene is shot. Although the clever editing means that actually very little graphic content is shown, the idea is there, and our brains fill in the blanks for us. It felt as though we had just witnessed something terrible, in full detail. However, on watching it back, I realised that Meadows just planted the idea in our heads, and simply created the illusion of a very graphic scene.

Meadows used the same technique when showing Lol attacking her father. She swings the hammer towards him, but the camera always moves before she makes contact with him. However, the idea of such violence is planted in our heads.

When Combo returns to This Is England by collapsing into Shaun’s house, my immediate reaction was a negative one; I assumed he was there to cause trouble, especially considering he was so drunk and covered in blood, a clear sign of violence. However, when Shaun covered him in a blanket, and there was a close up shot of Combo sleeping and looking vulnerable, I began to wonder why else he could be there.
In the end, Combo turns out to be a ‘good guy’; after another shocking scene where Lol kills her father, Combo turns up at the house and sees her crying, with Mike’s dead body sprawled across the floor. Combo immediately works out what has happened, as it is revealed earlier in the series that only Combo and Milky know about Lol’s traumatic past with her father. He goes straight over to Lol, and holds her as she cries. This shows a totally different side to the violent skinhead he portrays in the film. Combo is in love with Lol, which is revealed in the film and then reinforced in this scene. He takes the blame for Mike’s murder, planting his fingerprints on the hammer Lol used to attack Mike after he attempted to rape her.
When Combo does such a selfless thing for Lol, we can’t help but feel affection towards him. We can tell that the death of his mother, and seeing the love of his life in such a disturbing situation, has changed him for the better.

Every episode of This Is England ’86 is full of emotions. Meadows is renowned for an almost painfully honest approach to filmmaking, and seems to specialise in creating sympathy and evoking empathy within an audience. Right from the very beginning of the series, the mise en scene shows the deprived situation they live in, making the audience feel sorry for them. The gang seems to be connected by the bad things in their life; however, this does not come across as a negative thing. It seems almost happy, as they have managed to turn awful situations into a positive thing: friendship. Meadows cleverly contrasts humour and light-heartedness with all the negative emotions the characters feel; fear, anger and sadness are all juxtaposed against the cheerful bond the gang has, creating a wide range of emotions within the audience, sending them on an incredibly intense emotional rollercoaster.