Three-Part Television Serial | Drama | UK | English | 2h27m
Dir: Shane Meadows | Scr: Shane Meadows & Jack Thorne | Ph: Danny Cohen | Prod: Rebecca Wray-Rogers | Ed: Alastair Reid & Jonathan Stenton | PD: Janey Levick | AD: Andrew Ranner | Cast: Joe Gilgun, Vicky McClure, Thomas Turgoose, Andrew Ellis, Andrew Shim, Chanel Cresswell, Charlotte Tyree, Danielle Watson, George Newton, Hannah Walters, Helen Behan, Johnny Harris, Kriss Dosanjh, Lyra Mae Thomas, Michael Socha, Rebecca Manley, Rosamund Hanson, Stacey Sampson, Stephen Graham, Steve Brody
In Meadows’s decidedly imperfect, but painfully visceral and almost unbearably moving, follow-up to the inconsistently entertaining This Is England '86 (2010) and its brilliant predecessor This Is England (2006), the lives of Woody, Lol, Shaun, et al. continue to diverge at pace. Lol (McClure, outstanding) is living alone, struggling to cope with the twin burdens of parenthood and the memory of her abusive father and his grisly demise. Woody’s (Gilgun, excellent) newfound domestic bliss fails to cover up the feelings of loss and betrayal that he still harbours. And Shaun (Turgoose), still going out with Smell (Hanson), has his head turned by a pretty classmate (Tyree), who is appearing alongside him in a college play.
