Tag Archives: Comedy Drama

Preview: This Is England '86 {TV}

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Set three years on from Shane Meadows’ Bafta winning film This Is England, Chris de Burgh is top of the charts and over 3.4 million britons are unemployed. This Is England in the year 1986. A four-part serial for Channel 4 revisiting the original gang from the acclaimed film.

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Hapless Shaun (Thomas Turgoose) has just finished his final school exam and is a magnet for trouble and bullys. 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.

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This is filmmaker Shane Meadows’ television debut and speaking at a Q&A after the preview screening he made it clear that he didn’t see Television as a stepping stone into film and that he’d grown up watching great made for TV films. He did however say

“UK telly has gone to s***. It really has it’s appalling, but American TV, the new type of shows they’re making like the Sopranos and the Wire are great. That’s how people want to watch TV today, several episodes back to back. They want to sit with the missus and watch a 12 hour film. It’s an event.”

Meadow’s brought in help to bring the much anticipated follow up to TV. That help came in the form of co-writer Jack Thorne (The Scouting Book For Boys, Skins) and sharing the directing of the series with Tom Harper (Misfits). It’s no suprise then that the series is packed full of both hilarious and touching moments.

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Judging by the preview clips of the rest of the series, it looks to become edgier and darker as it progresses. Meadows hints at a dramatic turn of events midway through the series and looks at it as “sort of like two separate films”. The soundtrack was evolved from music the actors were listening to on their mp3 players to get into character and from a stack of discs that the two directors shared between each other leading to a soundtrack that’s not cliche or packed full of well known 80’s chart toppers.

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This Is England ’86 looks to be a hit for Channel 4, another beautiful and gritty flagship show with a lot of potential. Who knows, maybe we’ll be seeing This Is England in the 1990’s in the future…

This Is England ’86 starts on the 7th September on Channel 4


Dappers "Bristolicious" [TV Preview]

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I do like BBC3’s approach to experimental comedy drama, so when I was offered a sneaky preview at their latest offering I jumped at the chance.
Dappers is about a couple of single mothers living in Bristol surviving on benefits. Constantly trying to come up with get rich quick schemes; Ashley and Faye; played by Lenora Crichlow (Being Human) and Ty Glaser (Emmerdale) live in council owned properties in a well-to-do part of town.
Despite the fact that the pair are “like Del Boy and Rodders in thongs”; a phrase that could depress the very soul of happiness personified; the show is being billed as “a cheerful poke in the eye to all the negativity that surrounds single-mums.”


Jealous of their smug neighbours; Ben (Darren Boyd, Smack the Pony) and Anna (Olivia Poulet, The Thick of It); who seemingly have it all; the mothers struggle to cope with their looser love interests; the Marco (Tom Ellis, Miranda) a wannabe nightclub impresario and Ryan (newcomer, Jack Ashton) who’s half a step from a stretch; trying to make ends meet with crack pot schemes whilst looking after toddlers Angel and Daisy. Not able to afford even a can of WD40, Faye has to suffer a creaky jacket throughout.

The writer and exec producer Catherine Johnson (the writer of Mamma Mia!) says “I wanted to write about living in a housing association flat and being a single parent, but I wanted to do it in a way that wasn’t grim and all about poverty.  The idea of doing it as a comedy drama, very much in the mould of Gavin and Stacey, really appealed to me.” The show’s squarely aimed at the audience of nice-comedy appreciators that Gavin and Stacey left behind. The pilot episode features something that even the most cynical of viewers will be pursuaded by. Pugs. Poor pugs, they’re the butt of every joke.

This pilot looks like it has real potential for development. The female led writing and makes it a welcome change and the strong cast and the unique storyline can only work in it’s favour.

Watch Dappers on BBC3 on the 10th June at 9:30pm