This Is England

It's the day of Woody and Lol's wedding and all is not honey and cream. The thing is, well, the thing is Woody is not sure that marriage as a thing is such a good thing. Matters are not helped when Meggy has a heart attack on a toilet bowl. Meanwhile, Shaun, long separate from the gang, celebrates his last day of school the way every youth hopes to, sharing an egg sandwich with his Mum. She wants him to get a job, school bully Flip wants to help him out with his love life, Shaun just wants a scooter. Well, a scooter maybe with Smell on the back of it. He won't get the scooter. He might get her. Lava lamps will fly, wreaths will be stolen, weddings will be missed, old desires will be rekindled and mysterious Micks will reappear as we're all reminded This Is England.

The dawn chorus has nothing on a bunch of pissed-up monkeys serenading an old pal. Shaun is brought back into the fold. The trouble is that this gang now has holes in it a few miles wide. Gadget loves Kelly, Kelly doesn't love Gadget, Woody loves Lol, Milky loves Lol, Lol isn't sure who she loves. Matters come to a head as Lol's Dad Mick, returned to the bosom of his family, re-introduces himself to his daughter's life. A move which catapults her into the loving embrace of the wrong man - Milky. Shaun, in contrast to Lol, is having a great time, he has friends again, he has a new job in a fast-moving industry (home videos, they're the future) and his Mum is shagging his new boss Sandhu....oh. Yeah. He doesn't like that bit. Cover your ears ladies and gentlemen, sex is coming to town. Oh, and did we mention a boy called Winston?

Shaun, having rejected his Mum, is living rough. But everyone else is living rougher. What do you get a girl who has nothing? Less. Lol's world is falling apart and she's doing everything she can to fall apart with it. She doesn't want Milky, she doesn't want Woody, she certainly doesn't want Mick, she doesn't want anyone. As the best game of three legged football you've ever seen descends into chaos so do the lives of its participants. Gadget walks out on the life he could have had, Meggy almost discovers a life he never had, and Woody grabs vainly onto a life he nearly had. As Mexico '86 heats up with a Lineker hat trick, Mick does something unspeakable to a girl called Trev. And then Combo the cowboy returns from his travels. Remember him?

It's not fireworks night but there is gunpowder in the air. Woody and Lol have a coming together that leads to Woody thinking he's now ready for marriage. Combo and Shaun have a coming together that leads Combo to do something truly heroic. And Lol and Mick have a coming together that leads to a prolonged spell of brutality that kills a man. Lives will be changed, pints will be drunk, vespas will be ridden and hope will triumph. This was England.