This is England '86

A TV spin-off of a successful film- it’s always going to set alarm bells ringing. That said, I’m glad Channel Four have commissioned this series, not least because This is England was one of the best films of the past five years and brought deserved mainstream praise to one of the most skilful and consistently brilliant directors in the country, but also because it allows me the opportunity to partake in my favourite past time- spot the East Midlands accent.

It’s not all “eh up, me duck” and “giz a cob”; cinematic history has taught us that even the greatest actors can’t master the subtleties and intricacies of the underrated dialect. Even the great Albert Finney couldn’t quite nail it with his otherwise flawless turn in Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, throwing in a few too many dropped vowels and Yorkshire colloquialisms for my liking. This would’ve been all well and good if Arthur Seaton had been out living it up in the bars and working mans clubs of Leeds, but he wasn’t- it was Nottingham.

So I applaud Channel 4 for giving a soapbox for actors like Vicky Mclure and Andrew Shim, both Shane Meadows stalwarts, to give the accent a long overdue airing, it’s enough to give even the hardest-hearted of Notts exiles a severe kick of homesickness.

This is England ’86, after rescuing itself from a dodgy bit of slo-mo camera work in the intro and a Skins-esque playground tear-up, has the all the potential to become a top-quality show. However, to do so it must avoid the pitfalls of pastiche and actually say something- all that big hair and playful banter won’t hold the audiences’ attention for the duration.

The original was all mouth, making comment after comment about the increasing division of society under Thatcher, about the links between economic failure and racial unrest and, on a cultural level, the incongruence of racism within the skinhead movement- but it also had teeth. Two episodes in and TIE’86 is just beginning to find that bite, but it is the distinct feeling of more to come that can’t help but suck you in and keep you there for the long haul; a testament to the genius of Meadows’ creation. Let's hope it continues.