This is England '86: Finally Something to Watch Other Than Football

I don't watch TV that much these days. I don't see the point really. There's nothing much on. Even real-time channels like news channels repeats itself (yes Sky News, that's you I'm pointing a finger at) after about an hour or so. It's that bad. Not too long ago, you'd hear people say that the ads on telly are much more interesting than the programmes itself. I'd agree. Back then. These days, even the ads are utterly hopeless. Television is dead.

But every now and again, like a member of the undead horde, it does pop its head out and surprises its audience. Boo!

This time, the surprise comes in the form of a four-part sequel to the skinhead film, This is England. In short, the movie itself is about a little lonely boy called Shaun who befriends a bunch of skinheads, the happy-go-lucky, non-fascist, ska-listening variety. The gang is eventually split-up when a former member of the gang, Combo returns form prison and brings along with him all sorts of fascist/neo-Nazi ideas.

The TV series is a continuation of events in the movie, fast-forward 3 years to, you guessed it, 1986. Some sequels come quite independent of its original but in this case, the movie is absolutely essential viewing. Without having watched the movie, you'd be lost as to who, when, where and what is actually going on. A bit like an episode of Lost minus the sand, sunshine and the evenly tanned people.

Being an avid fan of scooters and anything remotely connected with it, I was doubly excited about the TV series as there was talk that scooterboys and naturally, a variety of scooters (an SX and a GP to date) would be making an appearance (yes, it doesn't take much to excite me these days).

The series was on its penultimate episode last night and I've watched every single episode from the start. Strangely enough, I didn't even watch the episodes on TV, preferring to watch Channel 4's on demand service on my laptop instead. As far as I can tell, the service isn't available to those living outside the UK and Ireland but don't feel left out, try their YouTube channel instead and maybe you'll have some better luck there.