1990 was an epic year in all counts, so it’s easy to see why it’s the next port of call for Shane Meadows with This Is England ’90, which aired in September 2015 and will follow with a DVD release date of the 23rd November 2015. Following up in the success of the last two mini-series and the 2006 movie that kicked it all off, the latest installment fast forwards to the start of the nineties. It looks at how the gang adapt to life in the new century with all of the baggage still left over from the ups and downs of the 1980s and you can see a glimpse of what to expect in the trailer below.
Italia ’90 is in full swing, Margaret Thatcher’s stranglehold over UK politics is starting to wobble, the Berlin Wall is in the process of deconstruction and riots have been rife throughout England. In and amongst all of this the gang is getting in to the euphoric highs of raves, ecstasy and acid house music as the second summer of love finally catches up with them and draws them into its hedonistic swell.
Lol, Woody, Shaun, Milky, Gadget, Harvey, Kell, Smell, Combo and Trev may not all embrace the arrival of a new wave of alternative popular youth culture with the same level of enthusiasm, but they’re all affected by it as spring turns to summer in 1990. However, they’re all still the product of their individual and collective past, so the lingering frosty remnants of the events of This Is England ’88, harrowing ’86 and the movie before them are still being felt by the group of kids we’ve grown up with a over the years.
It’s Shane Meadows’ final series, completing the story that began with the young group of skin heads and punks of 1983. As with every entry in the canon, This Is England ’90 won’t be all smiling happy people from start to end, as it covers more serious points as it transitions into the winter of discontent. A big part of this will focus on Shaun, who’s been at the heart of things since the 2006 movie, closing out his story with the gang of friends that took him in seven years earlier.
It’ll have as many highs and lows as the year itself had, mirroring Paul Gascoigne’s World Cup tears, the high hopes of NASA’s launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the trouble in the Middle East, the joy and triumph of Nelson Mandela’s release from prison and the apparent progress of the Soviet Union’s slow dissolution. Having won a number of BAFTA’s for previous outings, we’re expecting it to be another hard hitting production from Warp Films productions.
This Is England ’90 will be made up of four new 60-minute episodes to form the new mini-series. The first of these has been confirmed for an air date on Sunday the 13th September 2015 at 9pm. All of the cast from the previous series will be back once again with Thomas Turgoose as Shaun Field, Vicky McClure as Lol, Joe Gilgun as Woody, Andrew Shim as Milky, Stephen Graham as Combo, Rosamund Hanson as Smell, Michael Socha as Harvey, Chanel Cresswell as Kell, Andrew Ellis as Gadget and Danielle Watson as Trev.
The final series has been written by Shane Meadow and Jack Thorne, who have worked together on the Channel 4 venture since This Is England ’86. Meadows has also directed the four episodes with Mark Herbert and Bekki Wray-Rogers producing. All of the filming took place in and around Sheffield earlier in the year. Check out the trailer below to get a glimpse of what to expect.
