“This Is England ’86″ – a strained parallel universe

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Billed as one of the television events of the year, “This Is England ’86” feels more like a chance meeting with the school sex bomb twenty years later when she serves you at the minimart, disappointing but somewhat inevitable.

Set three years after Shane Meadows’ original “This Is England”, the story follows the trials and tribulations of Shaun, still haunted by the loss of his dad in the Falklands War and the appalling violence he witnessed racist thug Combo dish out to Milky.

Shaun’s about to flunk his exams and looks certain to join the millions of unemployed in Thatcher’s Britain. Worse still, his mum Cynthia won’t buy him a scooter for his birthday. If that wasn’t enough to contend with, he’s being bullied by a gang of casuals riding around on Yamaha hairdryers.

Meanwhile, the rest of Shaun’s old pals are rallying around Woody and Lol getting ready for their Happy Shopper wedding with now friendly racists Meggy and Banjo doing the catering. Yep, they prepare everyone’s favourite comedy nibble – volovants. If Victoria Wood were dead she’d turn in her grave.

People are often brilliant at reinventing themselves, but the complete lack of any real examination of the fallout of “This Is England’s” final shocking scenes is like the National Front has been lost in the Bermuda Triangle. One minute it’s there, the next minute it’s not. No doubt these themes will re-emerge, but they seem conspicuous by their absence at the moment.

It feels forced like a time travelling episode of “Skins”, but that’s because the first episode is written and directed by “Skins” scribe Jack Thorne. It isn’t even a triumph of style over substance as the direction is listless with none of verve or drive of “Skins” and certainly none of the masterful finesse of Meadows’ film work.

Meadows can turn the comic to the tragic like no other, but instead we’re trapped in a strained parallel universe where everything looks the same but doesn’t feel quite right. The jokes are worn and old; a wheelchair race in hospital is pointless and tragic rather than the exuberant trashing of derelict buildings in the original film.

Perhaps that’s the point; life for these young adults is an embarrassment now, a sad reflection of their wasted lives as they cling on to their old youth culture in a desperate grasp for identity amongst the grinding poverty of 80s Britain.

Of course, this is the first episode of four and plots are starting to develop, but when you talk about event television you are now in the same category as the big boys: “The Sopranos” “The Shield” and “The Wire.”

For a first episode not to deliver is frankly criminal, especially when you consider Channel 4’s track record for filmic series over the last couple of years with the superlative “Dead Set” and the powerful “Red Riding Trilogy.” This isn’t a season long programme that can afford the odd clinker; every part must be on the money.

On the plus side, Vicky McClure as Lol has matured into a working class goddess, a skin head Boadecia with an endlessly mesmerising face that is slowly taking centre stage in the series. Her relationship with her parents should make interesting viewing, but is there a touch of “A Room for Romeo Brass” developing?

Shaun’s interactions with Cynthia and old flame Smell are poignant and quietly drawn and were amongst the best scenes in this overhyped opener. Time will tell if “This Is England ’86” will be a vacuous exercise in nostalgia or start to develop into the socio-political drama Channel 4 did so well in the 80s.

We can have it all as Shane Meadows has already shown us in “This is England.” Let’s hope he doesn’t sully the memory of his own film any further.