Forehead Mowing: Part 1

You know that bit in Hook were one of the little kids puts his hand on Robin Williams face and says, like, 'Peter! You're old!' Well it was something like that when we watched This is England '86 the other night. Me and a few other boys.

Woody, Shaun, Smell, Banjo, Meggy, Gadget and the rest are back after a few years, and they are a few years older for it.

It frankly made me sad myself, an inside sadness to see Shaun all grown up. Even though it’s a biological impossibility that I could be his father, I felt like I was. I felt like I was his father, readying myself to say 'I know we haven't spoken for some time.'

Maybe that’s a strength, but it’s difficult to watch. Woody, your second fave, grew up too. He changed out of being a 4-Skin and changed into being Noel Gallagher. Even Banjo softened up. He still looks like a Nazi, but in the movie, you'll remember, he looked like the whole Khmer Rouge. He gets kissed on the head in the movie, while he's carrying a machete.

Along with the characters, the performances seem to have lost their edge a tad also. All of the actors, Andrew Ellis’s Gadget in particular, seem to have lost a little bit of that careless, shrugged, accidencyof delivery that gave the movie so much of its charm. They all seem a bit more tutored, a bit more actorly.

And it’s all a bit glossy, a bit more grown up. The colours and camerawork feel more classy, more Channel Four Dramary. It felt like This is England had put on weight. This is England learned to play sax.

And it all just feels a bit softer, a bit duller.

But it’s important to say that this might all change on Tueaday. Rumour has it that Combo comes back on Tuesday. His appearance in the movie was, remember, the thing that started all the bother.

And it’s also important to say that, by most standards, this is well good TV.

Also, some of the new things are the best things about it. Perry Fitzpatrick as the bully, Flip, for instance, has all the hysterical, whinnying, malevolence of Morrell, Paddy Considine's terrifying villain from Romeo Brass. His sequence, a calamitous Wodehousean rigmarole with an ill-fated plan to “win fair-lady”, is the best thing in it actually.

Maybe I sound like one of those twats who backed Rufio. I swear I’m not. I still love This is England. I'm just a bit suspicious that he might be turning into Robin Williams. We'll see.