THIS IS ENGLAND ‘86 - Channel4, from 7th September, 10pm (25/08/2010)
The long awaited sequel to Shane Meadows' BAFTA award winning film This Is England will screen on Channel 4 next month. The first of four episodes will screen 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 South Yorkshire shoot.For trailer and more, go to: www.channel4.com/thisisengland86Episode 1
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 celebrates his last day of school the way every youth hopes to, sharing an egg sandwich with his Mum (Jo Hartley). She wants him to get a job, school bully Flip (Perry Fitzpatrick) wants him to help out with his love life, Shaun just wants a skooter. Well, maybe a skooter with Smell (Rosamund Hanson) on the back of it. Meanwhile, it's the day of Woody (Joe Gilgun) and Lol's (Vicky McClure) wedding and all is not honey and cream. Matters are not helped when Meggy (Perry Benson) has a heart attack on the toilet bowl. Lava lamps will fly, wreaths will be stolen, weddings will be missed, old desires will be rekindled - This is England and this is just the beginning.
Episode one is written by Shane Meadows and Jack Thorne; directed by Tom Harper. 
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 funny and utterly compelling British drama."
This is England '86 is acclaimed British filmmaker Shane Meadows' (This Is England, 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) and directed by Meadows and Tom Harper (Misfits) and produced by Warp Films with support from Screen Yorkshire's Production Fund.
