LZ311: Film, Culture and Language. Shane Meadows: The poetry and the politics of middle-England.

Youre not from there man. Its just not real. (Shane Meadows on Ken Loach, 2007) Realism as an all-encompassing expression can be unstable. Lay (2002) explains that perception of reality is shaped by its historical, political and social contexts therefore what is considered real can differ dependant on how, where and when it is produced. Although the New Wave filmmakers and critics of the 1950s and 1960s brought the trials of the British working class to a wide audience, their personal experience of such microcosms was scarce. As a modern British social commentator Shane Meadows consistently draws upon the environment of his past and present, his films portraying his concern with the abject working dialectically in conjunction with his broader emphasis upon the failings of neoliberal ideology. (Fradley, n.d, pg. 9) His own location within the regional sphere grants him permission to explore characters on the fringes of society and create nostalgic, if sometimes vexatious, artworks. Meadows films can be identified as following Politique des Auteurs, developed by Andrew Cassis and the French New Wave filmmakers of Les Cahiers du Cinema journals. His work not only conforms to the conventions of social realism but through auteurist methods reveals a depth and profoundness to the characters which in turn set the films apart as modern day poetic masterpieces. Auteur theory allows to critically assess if a group of films by a particular director show a consistency of style, structure and theme and this paper will aim to discuss the themes and techniques that Meadows applies across the body of his work to achieve a realist aesthetic. In addition it will identify historical, social and political influences and analyse key semiotic elements from the films to examine the way in which they combine to construct a meditative interpretation of the subtexts. The origins of realism within art can be traced back to the Naturalist Literary artists of the late 1800s; a movement concerned with everyday reality and the inescapable effect of societies misfortunes on the human condition. Within cinema, the first British actualities, constructed by Robert W.Paul and Birt Acres at the beginning of the 20th Century retained the quality of truth, documenting everyday events from an objective perspective. These short films were realism in their purest form and preceded the age when camera tricky would begin to distort reality. The documentary movement of pre-World War II Britain, led by critic and filmmaker John Grierson had a vast influence over cinematic realism movements that followed. In his essay The First Principles of Documentary (1932) he defined documentary film as the creative treatment of actuality and he praised the work of fellow filmmakers who successfully constructed a verity aesthetic whilst simultaneously conveying a socially significant message. Fellow critics such as Paul

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LZ311: Film, Culture and Language. Rotha and Basil Wright were also staunch advocates of realist methods and supported not only the application of reality within films but the move towards a distinctive British style of cinema. In Rothas book The Film till now (1930) he stated Our railways, our industries, our towns and our countrysides are waiting for incorporation into narrative film and criticised the recycling of American or European models. Filmmakers of the documentary movement employed three basic principles that formed the basis for all future realist movements: First cinema should be taking slice-of-life reality rather than artificially constructing it. Second, everyday ordinary people should act themselves in real settings. Finally, cinema should strive to catch spontaneous or authentic gesture and uncontrived or natural speech. (Langhoff, pg.9) Griersons theories aided in establishing a standard model for British Social Realism, which flourished significantly during the New Wave era of the late fifties and sixties. Although brief, the era was famed for utilising experimental techniques and bringing issues of social class to the consciousness of audiences. In 1947, Karel Reisz, Gavin Lambert and Lindsay Anderson founded the critical film journal Sequence which condemned British cinema as stuffy, middle class, and lacking any moral perspective. In his influential essay, Get out and Push! Anderson condemned liberalist critics and artists for their superficiality and advocated the importance of socially relevant representations within cinema. (Lovell, 2009, pg.6) Coupled with the shift in youth politics to a new left stance, and a lingering post-war malaise, they drew on their experience of creating documentaries during the brief Free Cinema movement of the 50s to produce gritty, black and white feature films that depicted individuals who inhabited the social margins of society in terms of status and power(KinoEye, 2007). The central character tended to be a working-class male, repressed either by a female or the environment he inhabits. Other directors followed suit and notable films such as Look Back in Anger (Tony Richardson, 1959), A Kind of Loving (John Schlesinger, 1962) and The Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner (Richardson, 1962), discussed social divides, issues of education and employment and financial crisis whilst highlighting the constraints they placed on the characters (Langhoff, pg.17). By bringing the working-class to the screen, filmmakers of the New Wave era succeeded in breaking the conventional traits of cinema as a middle class, bourgeois space. Anderson (cited in Hill) saw cinema as a means of making connections and an essential part of the creative life of the community (Hill, 1986, pg. 57). He believed that by rejecting the majority of the population, previous filmmakers were depriving British cinema of the value of relevant social comment. During this period, censorship laws were relaxed, which allowed filmmakers to 2 Kimberley Ogrady-Marshall

LZ311: Film, Culture and Language. experiment with issues such as drug addiction, prostitution and abortion and distinguish themselves from the tinsel cinema of Hollywood (Armstrong, n.d). This concept of freedom was intrinsic to the work of New Wave filmmakers; not just the freedom from commercial constraint but also the freedom to express a personal, or unusual, point of view or vision (Higson, pg.191). It was this principle that distinguished the realism of New Wave filmmakers from that of the traditional Griersonian concepts. The application of personal characteristics provided a subjective element to cinema of the era and created a poetic realism which held together the irreconcilable discourses of artistic endeavour and public service. (Higson, pg.191) The 1970s witnessed a fall in the number of independent social commentaries in cinema with directors turning to television for experience or inspiration (Lay 2002). However the 1980s was a crucial decade in the development of social realism, primarily due to the social tensions that had arisen due to the election of Margaret Thatcher and the Tory party in 1979. Britain in the 80s was a divided nation. Mass unemployment was prevalent in northern regions where declining manufacturing business meant increasing poverty. The decaying industrial north was in striking social contrast to the booming south, dominated byhigh tech and financial industries (Friedman, pg.19). Shifts in benefits and taxations favoured the wealthy and civil unrest amongst the working classes was a direct result of Thatchers crippling economic policies and industry privatisation. The distinction in house prices between the North and the South of the country caused the gap to widen further as even those prepared to relocate to find employment could not afford housing in the prosperous southern counties. The film industry in Britain also suffered as a result of the governments strategies. Recently, film critic Peter Bradshaw went so far as to say that nothing, with the possible exception of football, was of less interest to Margaret Thatcher than cinema (Bradshaw, 2009). Consequently, The New Films Bill, passed in 1985, abolished the 1950s Eady Levy which had reinvested cinema tickets sales back into the British Film Industry, privatised the National Film Finance Corporation and eliminated the 25% tax break for film production investment (Friedman, pg.21). However, despite the governments antagonism towards the film industry, the anxieties of the decade provided a political and cultural backdrop for contemporary British filmmakers to voice their disgust with the current state of British life (Pearson, n.d). With the assistance of Channel 4, Film on Four provided young, experimental directors with funding and a platform with which to display socially significant films with a regional aesthetic. This alliance produced works with a contemporary national allegory such as My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) which explored themes of homosexuality and race, and Letters to Brezhnev (1986) which centred on female protagonists as appose to male. In addition to this, established

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LZ311: Film, Culture and Language. directors including Mike Leigh and Ken Loach continued to write and direct politically motivated pictures which subverted the morals of Thatcherism by depicting a society where friends and society matter (Pope, 2009). The 1990s signalled a revival of the British Film industry and the political and social climate provided the subject matter for the next generation of filmmakers whose adolescence had been affected by globalisation, local industry decline, the restructuring of the labour market and other legacies of the Thatcher era (Monk, pg.274). One of the most prolific British directors of the 21st Century is Shane Meadows. Raised in the working class neighbourhood of Uttoxeter on the rural peripheries of Stokeon-Trent and Derby, he suffered childhood abuse and the hands of bullies and after drifting in and out of skinhead youth gangs, moved to Nottingham to pursue a career in film. Drawing upon his childhood years, his unrefined semi-autobiographical depictions, whilst not explicit in their political tone, seek to convey a sense of social injustice through the unconventional lifestyles and offensive colloquialisms of the characters (Allom et al. pg. 227). His experiences and unprivileged upbringing provide a distinctive auterist voice with which to convey the adversities of growing up within the margins of society and his empathic representations of the working-class along with his expressive illustrations of regional landscapes capture a bleak yet enchanting milieu. Stylistically, the techniques employed my Meadows seek to highlight the meta-narrative elements of his stories and provide a poetic realism that transcends the objectivity of early realist works. Meadows has written and directed 7 feature films to date all of which feature ordinary, recognisable characters drawn into life changing situations (Fitzgerald, pg.126). Three of these particularly illustrate the reoccurring themes and processes that Meadows employs. A Room for Romeo Brass (1999) tells the story of 2 Nottingham schoolboys Romeo and Gavin and focuses on their damaging relationship with an older somewhat disturbed loner, Morell. Dead Mans Shoes (2004) centres on Richard, an ex-army officer out for revenge against the drug abusers and the bullies who tormented his younger brother. Meadows most renowned work to date is This is England (2007) which focuses on a 12 year old boy called Shaun, his introduction to skinhead culture and the racial tensions that arise from it. Other works include Twenty Four Seven (1997), Once Upon a time in the Midlands (2002), Somers Town (2008) and Le Donk and Scor-zay-zee (2009).

Key to the documentary aspect of Meadowss films is the recurrent use of performers, most, relatively unknown outside his body of work and the autobiographical aspects that he contributes to his scripts. The actor Paddy Considine, a close friend of Meadows features prominently, portraying 4 Kimberley Ogrady-Marshall

LZ311: Film, Culture and Language. such characters as the mentally disturbed personas of Morell (A Room for Romeo Brass, 1999) and Richard (Dead Mans Shoes, 2004) or the spiteful, socially inept traits of Le Donk (Le Donk and Scorzay-see 2009). Actress Vicky McClure is also prevalent in his films, initially as Ladine in A Room for Romeo Brass and later as Lol in This is England and its subsequent TV adaptations. Other actors such as Andrew Shim and Joanne Hartley are utilised repeatedly. Talent is sourced through workshops and open castings which focus on local talent with authentic traits similar to those envisaged in the characters. This technique mirrors that of previous social realist directors such as Ken Loach, breaking the conventional Hollywood film codes of popularity and physical appearance by selecting actors and actresses that will enhance the true realism of his films. Childhood friends Paul Fraser and Considine have collaborated with him on the screenplays for multiple features. His script writing, by his own admission, is a casual process and he actively encourages improvisation from his cast. In terms of things like parties and group thingsjust throw a few tins of beer in the mix and turn the camera on. says Meadows (2007), and this process assists in displaying a plethora of vulgar language and obscenities, overlapping in speech as well as authentic japery and genuine emotion. Capturing the verbal qualities of his cast through improvisation, Meadows provides a genuine verbally commentary from regional individuals that can be understood as a metonym for Meadows thematic emphasis on working-class commonality (Fradley, pg. 4) His dedication to his realist vision means that the experiences of his childhood also significantly influence his script writing and directing. Meadows(2007) admits that A Room for Romeo Brass was reflective of his and Frasers friendship and elements of the film such as the scene in the fish and chip shop (fig.1) reflect his childhood when his mother worked behind the counter. Dead Mans shoes also draws on traumatic personal experience. Shane states in an interview I lost a friend when I was 19; a kid Id grown up with committed suicide as a result of being schizophrenic. It wasnt just the illness that drove him to his death it was the crowd of people that we were around at the time preying on him (Field, 2004) This is England, Meadows most autobiographical piece of work to date, makes reference to the 2-Tone skinhead gangs of his childhood that he grew up around with Thomas Turgooses smart character name Shaun Field illustrating a close comparisons between the two.

All Meadowss films take an unflinching look at the world of men in contemporary society and more specifically, their relationship with violence and patriarchy. Each of the films draws attention to the failings or issues of either the male protagonists or the masculine influences in their lives and the violence they exhibit highlights their inability to alter their social circumstance. For example, in Dead Mans Shoes, the protagonist Richard sets out to murder a group of men that abused his brother.

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LZ311: Film, Culture and Language. The bloody vengeance that he wreaks is a consequence not only of the actions of the abusers but also due to the guilt and helplessness he feels for not being able to prevent it. In A Room for Romeo Brass, Morell lashes out against Romeo due to his frustration due to his social ineptness and the rejection he experiences from Romeos sister as a result. In This is England, Combo, a racist skinhead recently released from prison, interrogates Milky, a skinhead of Jamaican descent about his family. Milky responds positively, describing his family as sociable, caring and happy. This fuels a rage in Combo which results in him attacking Milky, not just because of his skin colour but because Milky represents what Combo desires but will never achieve. In contrast the female characters portrayed in Meadowss films suffer equally with their inescapable surroundings and turbulent family dynamics but less examination takes place and they are portrayed as somewhat submissive. This is reminiscent of the conventions of new wave and Social realist texts still exist as predominantly masculine based narratives. However in Meadowss recent television based sequels to This is England, the sufferings and anxieties of one of the central female characters Lol are studied in more depth. When confronted with her abusive father in This is England 86, a violent fight ensues, resulting in her murdering him. Again the audience is confronted with the vulnerability of the central character and violence as a mechanism to cope with their inadequacies. Meadowss compositions consistently feature dysfunctional behaviour and broken families, mirroring the dysfunctional and broken society that they inhabit. Another key subtext which Meadows recognises is the lack of patriarchy in modern contemporary Britain. Although Meadows father was not estranged, he spent most of his time working away from the family unit and because of this he felt he was one of those people who had to survive (Film Four, n.d). The majority of his films highlight the absence of an archetypal father figure by juxtaposing it against alternative but unsuitable mentors. A Room for Romeo Brass contains multiple references to the shortcomings of the elder masculine generation. Romeos absent father returns and the audience are made aware this is an unwelcome homecoming due to a previous misdemeanour. He relies on his well-grounded companion Gavin until Morell arrive and upsets the status quo. At a later stage when Romeos father attacks Morell, the bond between child and replacement father figure is strengthened. Morell tells Romeo he is welcome to stay with him whenever he needs to and sympathises: I know what its like man, when youre not getting along with your dad. I had a fucking life of it man, believe me, I had things what was done to me that I wouldnt even tell you aboutbut I never stopped loving my dad and to giving to him and trying for him, and he never gave anything back.

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LZ311: Film, Culture and Language. Morell then continues: Theres a saying in life Romeolook out for number oneyou dont trust no fucker, coz at the end of the day, you just end up getting hurt.(Morell, A Room for Romeo Brass) The following scene shows Romeo practising sparring moves that Morell has taught him, followed by Morell consoling Romeo after a conflict with his mother. Romeo has formed a bond with Morell due to what he feels is shared experience however the connotations of Morrell's previous comment reveal to the audience that a change in tone is approaching. This motif is repeated in This is England. Shauns father has been killed in the Falklands War, leaving him vulnerable to bullies. He is befriended by a group of 2-Tone skinheads, a youth culture with a strong sense of multiculturalism, allowing him a sense of belonging and a surrogate father figure in the gang leader Woody (fig.2). However when Combo, an advocate of National Front polices, is released from prison, his radical views appeal to the impressionable youngster and Woody is replaced by an inappropriate influence. Again an impassioned speech from Combo towards the young protagonist cements a solid yet essentially fated bond. I know what its like to have people walk out on you. To have people just fucking leave youyou ever want anyone to talk to, someone to cry with or just to have a hug, Im telling you Ill be there for you. (Combo, this is England.) Anxieties surrounding war and the effect on society are an evident subtext. In a room for Romeo Brass, connotations as to Morell's involvement in army combat are noticeable from the regimental hanging of his khaki underwear on the washing line (fig.3) and his comment to Ladine after he rescues Romeo from a fight, I could come and help you if you like, I dont mind. Im very experienced with war wounds. Dead Man Shoes similarly makes reference to the psychological effects of combat in Richards unwavering, regimented assaults and the use of the gas mask in the murder scenes signifying its influence over his actions, however it is This is England that encapsulates effusively the fragmented social idealism of a post Falklands community. Although set in past, the portrayal of a disjointed nation in the wake of conflict is still a theme resonates today. In an interview with The Culture Show (2007), Meadows admits as much as its about the Falklands its about Iraq and as much as its about England in 1983, its about England in 2007 In addition, in so much as the films make blatant reference to the military the violence the characters exhibit represent the wars raging inside them and by extension within the minds of many embittered working class young men left behind in Thatchers Britain.(Goldsmith, n.d).

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LZ311: Film, Culture and Language. Social Realism can be defined as A discursive term used to describe films that aim to show the effects of environmental factors on the development of character through depictions that emphasis the relationship between location and identity (Hallam and Marshment 2000, pg.184) and the most discernible characteristic of Meadowss social realist method is the construction of his mise-enscene. The cinematic landscape of his native east midlands consist of low rise estates and dimly lit interiors and interspersed shots of the regional environment ensure the locations arguably become characters in their own right (Allon et. Al, 2009). In Dead Mans shoes the audience are provided with sweeping long shots of the bleak yet picturesque peak-district countryside (fig.4) , juxtaposed against dirty council flat interiors, littered with pizza boxes and drug paraphernalia. The scenes where we encounter the gang, sprawled of sofas, drenched in arrested development squalor, getting off their faces (Fitzgerald, pg.128), (fig.5) contrasted with the scenes of Richard and his brother Anthony predominantly outdoors, signify their lifestyles reflecting the world they cannot escape. A Room for Romeo Brass also contrasts rural hinterland shots of Romeo and Gavin against the cramped and claustrophobic confines of hospital wards and Morell's Reliant Robin (Fitzgerald, pg.126) (fig.6). Use of lingering establishing shots intensifies the realist aesthetic and his commitment to on location shooting strengthens the verisimilitude of the scenes. All of Meadowss films begin with external shots highlighting the surroundings that are in intrinsic to the characters essence. The long and meditative treatment of urban space(Forrest pg. 193) serves to signify not only the working class environment that the individuals inhabit but aids in highlighting the wider themes explored in the film by breaking up the narrative and allowing the audience to reflect. This is England bears a strong resemblance to society and youth culture of the 1980s. The montage sequence at the outset of the film, a jarring combination of political, social and consumerist imagery, is a formidable sequence. Margaret Thatcher is pictured, interspersed with newsreel film showing the effect her policies have had on society. Comparably, the protagonist Shaun acts a metaphor for the demise of working-class communities. The death of his father in the Falklands acts as a catalyst for much of his behaviour (Fitzgerald, pg.132) mirroring the unrest of the country during that period. Montage is used frequently in this film; a jovial montage of Shaun with the 2-tone skin heads (fig.7) compared to an uncomfortable racist montage in the second half of the film with the National front members (fig.8) represents the divide in the nation at a time of economic and racial upset. In an interview with The Guardian (2007) Meadows stated, It was a time of great music, brilliant fashion and vibrant youth cultureit was also a time of massive unrest when British people were still prepared to fight for what they believed in.

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LZ311: Film, Culture and Language. The representations of the environs that comprise Meadowss landscapes are genuine locations and further increase in the sense of realism is achieved through substantial use of hand held camera equipment. This technique provides a sense of observation, allowing the audience to notice the actors and their surroundings as one entity. In contrast however to these themes of isolation and loneliness, Meadows does draw attention to positive aspects of a working-class existence and themes of camaraderie and hope. The friendship between Gavin and Romeo is unbroken at the end of A Room for Romeo Brass even in the wake of Morrells disturbing behaviour. Throughout the film, Gavin father is aloof and seems indifferent to his sons presence, however when Morell attempts to approach his family, he endangers his life to protect them. In Meadowss lesser known works, Twenty Four Seven and Somers Town, young males, again abandoned or overlooked by their father figures, find solace and understanding in each other. This is Englands illustration of youth culture warrants a certain level of nostalgia and although the by the end of the film the mood is one of outrage, Meadows recalls the occasions when Ben Sherman and Toots and the Maytals were a motif of working class solidarity. The whole thing was born out of a love of black musicthe skinhead movement was the ultimate kind of like...were proud to be working class anybody whos middle class cant wear these boots and cant wear these jeans and this work shirt and a pair of braces. (Meadows, The Culture Show, 2007) In contrast, Dead Mans shoes marginalises itself through is gratuitously violent scenes, but the majority of his works do address the touching friendships between characters and essentially it is the longing for social commonality that his films foreground (Fradley, pg.4).

The one notable departure from his autuerist methods, featuring performances from well-known actors such as Ricky Tomlinson, Kathy Burke and Robert Carlyle, was the tinned spaghetti Western Once upon a time in the Midlands (2002). Meadows was prevented from approving the final cut by investors and the comedic, thus ensuing Paddy Considines departure from the project and romantic elements take centre stage as appose to jarring of violence and humour that typify his other work. The Western genre conventions detract from the social realism that epitomises his previous and subsequent pieces and the film treads close to the field of parody. Meadows has been quoted as saying, Having famous people in your lms makes a difference to your box ofce, but its not something Id do regularly because it doesnt t with how I work. It wasnt my choice in the 9 Kimberley Ogrady-Marshall

LZ311: Film, Culture and Language. rst place to ll the cast with lots of big names. I was half forced into it to be honest (Left Lion, 2004) He admits though that Once Upon a Time in the Midlands allowed him to appreciate that certain techniques suited his methodology and his ensuing piece, Dead Mans Shoes, with its hand held cameras, minimal cast and affecting screenplay, was not just a revenge film in terms of the plot, but a revenge against the restrictive methods of the previous production which undermined his ethics.

In the past 15 years, Shane Meadows has forged a recognisable cinematic structure, bringing a distinctive visual style, warmth and idiosyncrasy for familiar material (Goldsmith, n.d). Through his previous experience, he effectively captures how the lives of ordinary individuals can lurch from the comic to the horrific in an instant. He muses on the nature of violence through hate, racism through nationalism and the cause and effect of unemployment whilst taking an unrestrained and unbiased look at individuals abandoned by society (Caroll, 2007). Nonetheless, there are still significant textual parallels between his work and the work of previous middle-class European New Wave filmmakers Both A Romeo for Romeo Brass and Dead Mans Shoes are comparable in scenery to that of Ken Loachs 1969 production Kes. In addition the final scene of This is England, illustrates Shaun alone on a beach on the outermost peripherals of his existence, and subsequently breaking the 4th wall, bearing a striking resemblance to the final scene of Les Quatre cent Coups (1959). With regards to a group of films with such complex imagery and arguments there are many conventions and themes that could further be analysed, multiplied more so when examining Meadowss work as an entity. Poetic elements such as the use of music to heighten mood, language, femininity and matriarchy, stereotypes and comedy could all warrant singular research papers and This is England as a solo piece offers an abundance of features for textual and sub textual analysis. His consistent amalgamation of auteurist visuals and socially visceral motifs effectively interpret the daily rituals and internal concerns of the inhabitants of middle Britain and is steadily becoming an important arena for projecting and debating British values and identity at home and globally.(British Film Council, n.d) This creates a forceful poetic realism, capturing the zeitgeist attitude of a beleaguered sub-section of society, which in turn is reiterated into the consciousness of the nation as a whole.

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LZ311: Film, Culture and Language. Bibliography.

Allon, Y. Cullen, D. Patterson, H (2001). Contemporary British and Irish film directors: A wallflower guide. London, UK: Wallflower Press. Fitzgerald, J (2010). Studying British Cinema:1999-2009. UK: Auteur. Friedman, L. D (2006). Fires were started: British Cinema and Thatcherism. 2nd ed. London, UK: Wallflower Press. Higson, A (1997). Waving the flag: Constructing a National Cinema in Britain. Gloucestershire, UK : Clarendon Press. Hill, J (1986). Sex Class and Realism: British Cinema 1956-1963. London, Langhoff, W (2002). Realism, Naturalism, Loachism? A Study of Ken Loach's Films of the 1990s.. Germany: Druck and Bindung. Lay, S (2002). British Social Realism:From Documentary to Brit Grit. London, UK: Wallflower Press. Lovell, A. (2009). British Cinema: The known cinema?. In: Murphy, RThe British Cinema Book. 3rd ed. London: BFI. Monk, C. (2000). Underbelly UK: The 1990's underclass film, masculinity and the ideologies of 'new' Britain. In: Ashby, J, Higson, A British Cinema, past and present. Oxford, UK: Routledge. p274-286. Peacock, K (1999). Thatcher's Britain: British theatre and drama in the 80's. USA: Greenwood Publishing Group.

Website Bibliography
Armstrong, R. (n.d). Social Realism. Available: http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1037898/index.html. Last accessed 32st Jan 2012. Bradshaw,P. (2009). Acceptable in the 80's. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/apr/11/thatcher-and-the-arts. Last accessed 31st Jan 2012. Carroll, J. (2007). Shane Meadows tackles racism head-on. Available: http://epocharchive.com/a1/en/uk/nnn/2007/04-Apr/25/010entertainment.pdf. Last accessed 31st Jan 2012. Fradley, M. (n.d). Al Fresco? Thats Up Yer Anus, Innit?: Shane Meadows and the Politics of Abjection" . Available: http://edgehill.academia.edu/MartinFradley/Papers/659502/_Al_Fresco_Thats_Up_Yer_A nus_Innit_Shane_Meadows_and_the_Politics_of_Abjection_. Last accessed 31st Jan 2012. Joe Field. (2004). Shane Meadows. Available: http://www.lazaruscorporation.co.uk/articles/shane-meadows. Last accessed 31st Jan 2012.

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LZ311: Film, Culture and Language.

Goldsmith, L. (n.d). The alternate history boys. Available: http://www.reverseshot.com/article/this_is_england. Last accessed 31st Jan 2012. Pearson, M. (n.d). The Renaissance of the 1980's. Available: http://www.britishfilm.org.uk/article.php?art=1980s&page=10. Last accessed 31st Jan 2012. Pope, A. (2009). Contemporary British Cinema and Thatcherism. Available: http://www.britflicks.com/Blogs%20and%20Articles/Contemporary%20British%20Cinem a%20and%20Thatcherism%20By%20Andy%20Pope.aspx. Last accessed 31st Jan 2012 Unknown. (2004). Left Lion: Shane Meadows interview. Available: http://www.leftlion.co.uk/articles.cfm/title/shane-meadows-interview/id/213. Last accessed 31st Jan 2012. Unknown. (2007). Under my skin. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/apr/21/culture.features. Last accessed 31st Jan 2012. Unknown. (2007). The British New Wave: Social Reailst Film of the 1960's. Available: http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/michaelwalford/entry/the_british_new/. Last accessed 31st Jan 2012. Unknown. (n.d). Shane Meadows on This is England. Available: http://www.film4.com/features/article/shane-meadows-on-this-is-england. Last accessed 31st Jan 2012. Unknown. (n.d). The Cultural Impact of British Film. Available: http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/media/pdf/0/t/I.Christie_Qft_presentation.pdf. Last accessed 31st Jan 2012

Journal Articles. Forrest. (2009). Shane Meadows and the British New Wave: Britains hidden art cinema. Studies in European Cinema. 6 (2&3), 191-201.

YouTube Interviews. Shane Meadows Interview at Long Road Sixth Form College, Cambridge, 2007,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHhJezduqVU, Last accessed 31st Jan 2012 Shane Meadows and Vicky McClure interview on Southbank http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB5Fg--dLNE. Last accessed 31st Jan 2012 Sky Arts, 2011,

Shane Meadows on The Culture Show, 2007, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8Z8U7IZrE8. Last accessed 31st Jan 2012

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LZ311: Film, Culture and Language. Shane Meadows Filmography.

Twenty Four Seven (1997) A Room for Romeo Brass (1999) Once Upon a Time in the Midlands (2002) Dead Man's Shoes (2004) This Is England (2006) Somers Town (2008) Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee (2009)

Figure 1.

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Figure 3.

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

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Figure 6.

Figure 7.

Figure 8.

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