Four autumn-tinted episodes catch up with Vicky McClure's Lol and Joseph Gilgun's Woody playing happy families in Gleadless council semis while Thomas Turgoose's Shaun, Michael Socha's Harvey and Chanel Cresswell's Kelly chase MDMA and The Stone Roses across northern warehouses. The La's soundtrack Margaret Thatcher's November resignation in the opening montage, then each instalment steps through a season, letting the high fade into bleaker mornings. Sheffield's Park Hill flats double as Harvey and Andrew Ellis's Gadget's dealer pad, the lifts still piss-scented, the balconies perfect for lunging at passing pigeons.
While the others neck pills, Stephen Graham's Combo rots in prison, writing letters that crack open the decade's hangover. Meadows and Jack Thorne keep the improvisation that made the 2006 film electric, shooting in the same pubs, chippies and school kitchens where Lol now bosses dinner ladies. The camera lingers on charity-shop shellsuits, bleached fringes, knock-off smiley T-shirts, catching the moment when rave's togetherness melts into casual violence and unpaid gas bills. No moralising, just a close-up on pupils dilating as 808 State drop, then the cut to a single mum scraping chips at 7 a.m.
The four-parter ends with a funeral and a birth, the gang scattered but still humming 303 basslines, the decade turning before anyone worked out how to survive it.
Production Details
Channel 4 / 1 Season / 4 Episodes / 2015
Created by: Shane Meadows
Writer(s): Jack Thorne
Producer(s): Mark Herbert, Rebekah Wray-Rogers
Cinematography: Stuart Bentley
Music: James Griffith, Pablo Clements
Main Cast
Vicky McClure as Lol
Joseph Gilgun as Richard 'Woody' Woodford
Stephen Graham as Combo
Thomas Turgoose as Shaun Fields
Andrew Shim as Michael 'Milky'
Chanel Cresswell as Kelly
Jo Hartley as Cynth
Andrew Ellis as Gadget
Michael Socha as Harvey
Danielle Watson as Trev
Joe Dempsie as Higgy
Perry Fitzpatrick as Flip
