The series completely loses the intensity of the original film, and sells out to 'cuteness' - all of them having fun, giggling and partying. The characters are soft and fluffy now that it's been watered down. All of that frightening buildup and grittiness of the film is entirely lacking here.

I was a 16 year old skinhead in Sydney Australia back then in 1986 and this pretty much sums it all up. A heap of kids from broken homes coming together. Rather than drugs it was drinking, music and each other. Skins, Rudy's, Mods, Rockers we all came together. There used to be soccer matches with all the sub-cultures it was a great time. This is perfect because it shows skinheads as they were not seig hailing nazi boneheads. I hope this series is extended it is a prefect reflection of that era. The characters are perfect and the different sub- cultures portray. Even in 2011 bands from that era are enjoying more success today then back then.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Playing out as the drama that it was, making it's characters so relatable to as normal people (and what a great job it did) This is England was one of those films that left you wondering what would become of the characters later on, long after it had finished. And, for those who don't fancy trekking out to the cinemas to see a follow up film, Shane Meadows has kindly made this more condensed four part TV drama that allows the drama and dynamics to build more gradually.All eyes, naturally, are on Shaun (Thomas Turgoose), the main character from the film, who's now a teenager, who's voice has deepened and who doesn't hold out much hope in his exams, leading him to a worrying future as another layabout with no hope in Thatcher's Britain. After the devastating events at the end of the film, he's also drifted apart from the old gang and hopes to keep it that way...until a chance encounter in a hospital causes their paths to cross again, including with Smell (Rosamund Hanson) his former love interest, and Woody (Joseph Gilgun) the charismatic leader of the group. Through-out the course of the series, the various characters encounter their various triumpths and tragedies, until they are set on a collision course with the return of Combo (Stephen Graham), before everything heads towards a shattering climax that will change everything.If there's one notable gripe here, it's that the attention to period detail doesn't feel quite as on the ball, compared with the film, with such minor notables as inside a hospital bringing this point to life no end. Otherwise, this is an inspired, relevant and worthy follow-up piece to a great film, that somehow does manage to get you more and more drawn into it as it goes on. As well as introducing a few new characters, the old faces including slow-witted Gadget (Andrew Ellis), hard faced mare Lol (Vicky McClure) and black guy Milky (Andrew Shim) are as prominent as before, some of them free to return to their more light hearted parts now free from the darker influence Combo had on them in the film. But although Stephen Graham's character is absent until the end, noteworthy considering what a massive driving force he was in the film, Johnny Harris perfectly fills his shoes in a very sinister role, truly bringing out a monstrous character in a very grim light.Though looking a bit more polished, with probably a bigger budget to cover it over, '86 basically follows in the same style as the film, the gang just ambling along, doing their thing, with the occasional dark burst of unpleasantness to make it feel truer to life. With some critics already hailing it as the best TV drama of the year, Meadows has left an acclaimed idea to his name. ****

I'm an ex-pat Brit living in the us.and i can tell you most American viewers wouldn't last past five minutes into this show.the cast is below average in looks, some are deformed, they talk funny; the characters are a mixture of the depressed, depraved, the thick and the stupid. the acting can only be described as a work in progress, and they lead dead end lives in dead end places. there ain't no glamor here.all this will repel viewers whose identity is cast by fashion and t.v. programming. this show could never find a spot anytime on a us network. episode four would send middle America into a terminal tale spin--but it's not their fault. we don't get this kind of material because the money men who run us television only care about the cash--the baby faced producers would say, "who wants to watch a show about ugly losers?".and if you want to hold up PBS as a daring non-commercial network, then drink some more koolaid. their emphasis is Lawrence welk for the primary, grey haired donors, and pimping a brainwashing liberal agenda through their political programming. they might find the balls to show a program like this around the 23rd century.but i love it.the original film, and this following series, seems to take a cast of mostly inexperienced actors, who may have lived the parts, and coaches them through a working class reality which at its core is full of camaraderie, loyalty, forgiveness and love. not the prettified sitcom love, but a love grown through lifelong community and shared pain, a love of real sacrifice. these people are flawed like the rest of us, but they are not us. at first we reject their world as alien, but we see, through time, they share all our fears and traumas. we too are all common.and thank god someone is making something about real people.the great shame is: only a few Americans will ever see this show. we need to raise the bar, and flush out the cobwebbed hierarchy at PBS. i just hope we don't have to wait until the 23rd century for our programming to catch up. i don't think i can wait that long.