SHEFFIELD HOMECOMING FOR THE CAST OF ‘THIS IS ENGLAND ‘86’ (03/09/2010)
Screen Yorkshire joined fans for a very special preview event of Channel 4's upcoming four-part serial This is England '86 at the Showroom in Sheffield, the city where it was made, last night. Key cast including Thomas Turgoose, Vicky McClure, Andrew Shim and Joe Gilgun attended the event, along with director Shane Meadows and producer Mark Herbert from Sheffield's internationally renowned Warp Films.
Event organisers curated a live, interactive experience, taking the fans back to 1986 and transforming the cinema into a working man's social club, including a live performance by a local Ska band, free sausage rolls and monster munch to boot! Fans were given limited edition collectible hand outs with interviews and behind the scenes stills from the series as souvenirs.
Speaking outside the event before the screening, Director Shane Meadows told reporters how he ‘fell in love with Sheffield' during the making of the series, adding that Screen Yorkshire, who co-financed the production, had been ‘fantastically supportive'.
Sally Joynson, Chief Executive at Screen Yorkshire said:
''This is England 86 was filmed throughout Sheffield, produced by Warp Films, a Sheffield company, employed Yorkshire crew and was backed by Screen Yorkshire - it's a great testament to what we have in the region and tonight's national premiere is a real celebration of all that Yorkshire talent.''
Images taken by Colin Baldwin: www.colinbaldwinphotography.com
For more images, go to flickr
The first of four episodes long awaited sequel to Shane Meadows' BAFTA award winning film This Is England will screen on Channel 4 on Tuesday 7th September at 10pm, with subsequent episodes screening each Tuesday thereafter. This Is England '86 is produced by Sheffield's internationally renowned Warp Films. Screen Yorkshire backed the films through its Production Fund and supported Warp Films to crew up locally for the Sheffield shoot.
This Is England '86 was filmed entirely on location in Sheffield. Richard Knight, Location Manager, who also worked with Warp Films on Four Lions, talks about his experience working on the drama in his home city.
‘'As a Sheffield resident, I was delighted when I heard that Warp Films and Shane Meadows were interested in bringing 'This is England '86' to my home city - the sweeping hills and the sheer amount of open space makes it such a visually interesting place in which to film and I'd had such a brilliant time working there on 'Four Lions' in 2009.
The residents of Gleadless Valley where we based the shoot for 'This Is England '86' were incredibly welcoming and friendly - and the support from Sheffield City Council, Sheffield Homes and the Gleadless Valley Community Forum made it one of the easiest and most rewarding projects I've ever had the pleasure to work on. I hope that both ‘Four Lions' and ‘This is England '86' will mark a new association for Sheffield with vibrant, modern, cutting-edge drama and comedy. It certainly deserves it.''
It's 1986 - the year Maradona ends England's world cup dreams in Mexico; the year Top Gun is the highest grossing film; the year over 3.4 million Brits are unemployed and the year Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) is leaving school.
On his own again after the gang was broken up by Combo's (Stephen Graham) terrifying acts of violence, hapless Shaun is a magnet for trouble. Then a chance encounter reunites him with Woody (Joe Gilgun), Lol (Vicky McClure), Smell (Rosamund Hanson) and the others and soon the past is forgotten. The gang are back together and they're all looking for love, a laugh, a job and something that resembles a future.
Shane Meadows said: "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."
Channel 4 Head of Drama, Camilla Campbell, said: "Film4 has a longstanding relationship with Shane, and so I'm thrilled that a filmmaker of his calibre has decided to make his TV debut for Channel 4. I can't wait to see the characters reunited in 1986 and watch their stories unfold over four hours of television. With all it has to say about the way we live now as well as the way we lived then, this is a darkly funny and utterly compelling British drama."
This is England '86 is acclaimed British filmmaker Shane Meadows' (Somers Town, Dead Man's Shoes) television debut and the much anticipated follow up to his BAFTA award-winning film. Reuniting the original cast, the four-part drama for Channel 4 is co-written by Meadows and Jack Thorne (The Scouting Book For Boys), directed by Meadows and Tom Harper (Misfits) and produced by Warp Films with support from Screen Yorkshire and EM Media.
For trailer and more, go to: www.channel4.com/thisisengland86
