My Small Scale ProjectShane Meadows and the revival of the kitchen sink drama

Charlie Hopwood

My secondary research.

For my secondary research, I visited the BFI library. When there I gained information for my films This is England and Twenty Four Seven. The information I collected were of magazine articles and interviews with Shane Meadows. These mainly come from the Sight and Sound magazine. This was helping as I gained extra understanding of why he made the films and how he was inspired when making them. I also looked a book that gave me information on Shane Meadows and many of the films he has previously made.

What is a Kitchen Sink Drama?

Kitchen Sink dramas started in the late 5os early 60s. This was used in art, theatre, television and film.

Kitchen Sink dramas or realism was a British cultural movement that depicted heroes as angry young men. These dramas mainly focused on the working class side to British life. It see them look at individuals who'd spend all their time in pubs; seeing their side to social and political controversies.

My chosen films.

The films I have chosen are:

This is EnglandSaturday Night-Sunday Morning Twenty Four

Seven

My Focus Film.

The film I have chosen as my focus film is Shane Meadows- This is England.The reason I have chosen this film is because it perfectly shows the Kitchen Sink Dramas idea of angry young men. This films is set in the 80s midland, around the time of skinheads. For some, skinheads were racist; though to other people these could be seen as Heroes.

This film is about a 12 year old boy who has not had a good child hood. He meets a group of young skin heads that let him into their group. When the return of Gumbo (Stephen Graham) things in the group change. He must decide to stay out of trouble, or help honor his fathers name with what he thinks is right.

The scene I am showing you helps show the idea of angry young men as heroes.

My Supporting Films.

The reason for the choice of this film is because it’s a classic well known Kitchen sink drama. I’m using this to help compare my other focus films to see the similarities and differences.

The scene I have chosen to look at is called ‘Whatever people say I am, I am not’. This is the perfect example to use as it shows everything all at once about Kitchen sink dramas.This film is about an angry young man who is in two relationships, but one being with a married women who he has got pregnant. He’s only escape is getting down to the pub on a Saturday night for a beer. With mistakes from his actions, he must get money to help get out of trouble.

My supporting films.

My other supporting film is Shane Meadows- Twenty Four Seven. This was chosen to help me compare with my other 2 chosen films. This film is different to Shane Meadows other film as it is filmed in black and white. This could be an indication on Shane Meadows and his ideas on Kitchen Sink dramas.What helps support this is that the film is about young men using boxing to help get out of trouble. The idea of angry young men can be seen here too.

This film is about a man that decides to open up his own boxing gym to help young individuals stay out of trouble and put their anger into something else.

Specific scenes

One scene I have chosen to look at in twenty four seven is the ballroom dance scene. This has been regarded as a key scene when comparing Shane Meadows films with British New Wave.

There is a a piece of information in one of my gatherings that helps suggests that this could be related to British New Wave.

‘Picking up the baton: Meadows and the continuing tradition of British Art cinema’

Specific scenes

The specific scene for This is England is when Combo and the rest of the group go to a skin head meeting. I am also looking at the scene where Combo beats up Milky. These scenes are useful because they help show the British new wave idea on what life was like for young working class men.

Bullet Points/Questions