Spotlight - Best of British: Shane Meadows

The best thing to come out of the Midlands since... Noddy Holder?
Image courtesy of: filmmovement.com

One of our personal favourite directors over here at MGNC is none other than the infamously gritty British director, everyone's favourite skinhead since Phil and Grant Mitchell, yes, you've guessed it, it's Prime Minister of Grit Britain Shane Meadows.

The man is responsible for bringing us some of the most humane, fantastically written films about the lives of the working class, whilst simultaneously showcasing some of the crème de la crème of British acting talent (Joseph Gilgun deserves better than Emmerdale). Arguably the East Midlands equivalent of Martin Scorsese, his films are known for intimately showing us the breakdowns and the psychology of people and they are all undoubtedly brilliant.

We're taking this opportunity to enlighten you about this directorial great, because we have an ever-so-slight inkling that Meadows Fever is about to take over the country once more. As you should all be aware, the TV series This Is England '86 (follow up to his most well known masterpiece This Is England, obviously) has aired tonight on Channel 4. And in conjunction with this release, Film4 are starting The Shane Meadows Season from September the 8th showcasing some of his finest materials along with some never before seen short films about Shane's world.

Enjoy! We will.

One to Watch: This Is England '86

In 2007 we as a nation were treated to a fantastic piece of British cinema in the form of This Is England. An intimate look at 'Skinhead' culture in 1983, by none other than seminal Midland's director Shane Meadows. The film is a rites of passage story of Shaun (allegedly loosely based on Meadows himself), played by Thomas Turgoose (Somer's Town, Eden Lake). It was renowned for it's very close, realistic and intimate look at violence, racism, culture and the passionate, emotional lives of the people in Britain during the early 80's. The movie was a popular hit for the Brit-film scene and garnered a great reputation throughout the country, leaving lots of us eager for more. Well, now we won't have to wait much longer...

The Gang return 3 years on, just in time for the World Cup in Mexico '86
Image courtesy of shanemeadows.co.uk

3 years later comes 'This Is England '86'. It's a four part follow-up TV series to accompany the film, directed partially by Shane Meadows and partially by Tom Harper (MisFits) allowing us to once more look into the lives of Woody, Shaun, Lol (plus a few new additions) and all of the other wonderfully colourful and well written characters. There have also been promises made that the series will not be a carbon copy of the film, but it will in fact be quite different, with it's subject matter changing and moving on with the times- three years have passed, people have changed and I'm sure it will be absolutely riveting to watch. Hopefully with that should come promising new storylines and character backgrounds and hopefully plenty of laughs, tears and everything in between. (Plus the soundtrack should be pretty damn good too - Ed).

Though I for one can't wait to see the fantastic Stephen Graham (Snatch, The Damned United) reprising his role as National Front fanatic 'Combo', it'll be interesting to see how he has changed since the film, and I'm fairly confident he'll be responsible for causing his fair share of drama, which I'm incredibly excited about. So, UK viewers - look out for 'This Is England 86' coming sometime in September to Channel 4, it's definitely my one to watch for the coming month.

And if you're wanting more to keep you occupied until the series' release, then head on over to show's official webpage and check out trailers, information, behind-the-scenes footage and more! Just click the link to be taken straight there.