- guardian.co.uk, Sunday February 3 2008 00.12 GMT
- The Observer, Sunday February 3 2008
England, their England
The skinheads saw off the northern mods as This Is England beat Control to the Best Film at the South Bank Show Awards, to be shown on ITV tonight. It marks the beginning of a proud week for director Shane Meadows and his producer Mark Herbert, who are being fitted for their suits for next weekend's Baftas before flying to the Berlin Film Festival, where Shane's mini-feature Somerstown is playing in the Panorama section. Even more exciting is the beginning of Shane's long-gestating project King of the Gypsies, which he sits down to write with actor Paddy Considine after years of discussion. It's the story of Bartley Gorman the Third, a real-life bare-knuckle boxing champion from Shane's childhood. Says Herbert: 'This Is England was such a success that we've been able to get enough money to give Shane and Paddy the time and the power to make this sort of English epic.' Considine will join his old mates at the Baftas too, as his first short film as director, Dog Altogether, is up for an award. 'Shane's been teasing him,' says Herbert, 'telling him that, because we're up for a proper award, we get freebies and limos and that the short film nominees must take the bus. Paddy's still not sure if it's a joke.'
Documentary dilemma
Nick Broomfield used to be known for appearing in his own documentaries, holding a boom mike and dressed in jeans and a trademark white T-shirt. As his most recent works have turned more serious - the excellent Ghosts, about the immigrant Chinese cockle pickers, and now Battle For Haditha - Broomfield has disappeared from the screen. 'Partly, its because the works are not humorous and don't need me poking my nose in,' he says, 'but partly, it's because I've run out of T-shirts. I used to get three-packs of those Dockers white shirts but they seem to have stopped selling them.'
