London, 1975. Petty thief Steve Jones nicks a microphone from the Hammersmith Apollo, staggers into Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren’s King's Road boutique and walks out with a band, a look and a revolution. Over six episodes, creator Craig Pearce and director Danny Boyle sprint from this first theft to the Grundy interview, the Jubilee boat stunt and the Winterland last-gig implosion, using Jones’s 2018 memoir Lonely Boy as the unreliable narrator. Boyle shoots on 16 mm, lets cameras roll between takes and splices cartoon captions into the chaos, landing somewhere between Filth and the Fury and Trainspotting’s kinetic rush.
The cast are spotty, scrawny and mostly unknown. Toby Wallace’s Jones carries the story, a south-London kleptomaniac swapping guitar for front-man when Anson Boon’s sneering John Lydon auditions with a karaoke Johnny B. Goode. Maisie Williams plays Jordan, the platinum-blonde SEX-shop assistant who became the Pistols’ walking provocation, while Sydney Chandler’s Chrissie Hynde drifts in and out as the band’s sharpest observer and future Pretender. Thomas Brodie-Sangster gives McLaren the oily charm of a situationist carnival barker who realises, too late, that the carnival has slipped the leash.
Disney+ UK and FX on Hulu dropped all six episodes on 31 May 2022. The series never tries to explain punk; it just keeps the amps turned up until the feedback hurts.
Production Details
Hulu / 1 Season / 6 Episodes / 2022
Created by: Craig Pearce
Showrunner(s): Steve Jones, Craig Pearce, Danny Boyle
Writer(s): Craig Pearce
Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle
Main Cast
Toby Wallace as Steve Jones
Anson Boon as John Lydon
Christian Lees as Glen Matlock
Sydney Chandler as Chrissie Hynde
Talulah Riley as Vivienne Westwood
Maisie Williams as Jordan
Emma Appleton as Nancy Spungen
Thomas Brodie-Sangster as Malcolm McLaren
Jacob Slater as Paul Cook
John McCrea as Steve Severin
Freddie Wise as Simon Barker
Francesca Mills as Helen of Troy
