Entertainment For Lively Minds
Darling, darling that dam's gonna give
Ma Bisto and I watched This Is England '88 last night in its entirety. It wasn't until the final credits rolled to Ken Boothe's version of Everything I Own that we realised how significant the lives of Smell, Milky, Combo, Shaun, Lol and Woody had become since Shane Meadow's 2006 film. I can't think of any programme in recent years that has affected me so deeply and yet wholly rewarded my emotional investment in its characters and their stories. Scene after scene played out last night of astonishing acting, directing and emotional revelation.
Despite the almost suffocating heartbreak unfolding on screen such was the consummate skill of all involved I never once felt like there was anything excessive or manipulative in how Shane Meadows presented the hardship and toil that was tearing at the hearts and minds of Lol and Woody. And within their tragedy and grief there always remained a palpable and truthful seed of hope, of redemption and of something approaching a kind of happiness.
I'm wary that people may not have seen the programme so I don't want to give anything away except to say that Ma Bisto and I will never listen to this piece of music the same way ever again.
Fionn Regan - Dogwood Blossom
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Mrs 0510 and I watched it in 1 go too.
Powerful stuff wasn't it? First class telly though, by far the best thing I've seen this year.
Incredible stuff (spoilers)
Stayed up til 1.45am on Sunday night to watch the whole thing.
Meadows finds tenderness in the toughest situations, humour in the bleakest scenes (Woody and Lol in the hospital).
He also frames the scenes beautifully and simply so they look like Martin Parr photographs. When he does use different ways of filming, they are so effective (eg. the slow motion scene with the nurse and Lol)
The characters are never paper-thin stereotypes - Woody's girlfriend gives a heart-breaking and completely unexpected speech at the end.
Vicky McClure is astonishing as Lol - her face conveying the horror and misery of the character's life.
The only flaw for me was that Shaun was almost completely sidelined by the end.
couldn't watch the film
don't get that particular kind of nostalgia.
You missed out.
It may be set in a particular time, but if any drama was ever character-driven, this is it.
It's about people. And humanity. And it was brilliant.
Watched it myself last night.
It was relentlessly gloomy but totally compelling viewing at the same time. At first I thought the actor who played Woody was a bit one dimensional but the little Tourette's tics that showed his old personality coming through were great.
I haven’t
seen a better performance all year than Joe Gilgun playing Woody - heartbreaking and hilarious (in the final episode both at the same time).
Terrific comic timing in Misfits too.