The TV project picks up four years after the story told in his award-winning feature film This Is England. Thomas Turgoose reprises his role as Shaun.

Shane Meadows started shooting today for This Is England ’86, the new four-part drama for the UK’s Channel 4. It marks his TV debut – Meadows and Tom Harper will each direct two episodes of the drama.

The TV project picks up four years after the story told in his award-winning feature film This Is England. Thomas Turgoose will reprise his role as Shaun.

Shane Meadows said: “When I finished This Is England I had a wealth of material and unused ideas that I felt very keen to take further – audiences seemed to really respond to the characters we created and out of my long standing relationship with Film4 and Channel 4 the idea for a television serial developed. Not only did I want to take the story of the gang broader and deeper, I also saw in the experiences of the young in 1986 many resonances to now – recession, lack of jobs, sense of the world at a turning point. Whereas the film told part of the story, the TV serial will tell the rest.”

Channel 4 Head of Drama, Camilla Campbell, said: “Film4 has a longstanding relationship with Shane, and so I’m thrilled that a filmmaker of his calibre has decided to make his TV debut for Channel 4.”

The project was formerly titled We Were Faces. Meadows wrote with Jack Thorne. Meadows’ longtime collaborators Warp Films is producing – Warp MD Mark Herbert is series producer with Derrin Schlesinger as producer.

This Is England ‘86 will shoot for eight weeks. It is scheduled to air on Channel 4 in the autumn.

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