Director- Shane Meadows
Writer- Shane Meadows
Release Date- 27th April 2007
Genre- Crime, Drama
Award- Won seven awards total was nominated for fourteen
Young Audience Award, BAFTA Film Award, British Independent Film Award, UK Film Talent Award, Best European Film, Young European Jury Award, Best Director Award
Company- Big arty Productions

The film itself was set around Shane’s younger life; it’s a coming of age take about a young boy looking for his place to fit in. The film set in the Northern working class town in 1983 and includes strong anti-conservative views. ‘Thatcher is a twat’

It's hard to describe Shane Meadows' latest film without making it appear a great deal less interesting than it actually is. It's a semi-autobiographical tale of a young boy adopted by a gang of skinheads in a grey seaside town. And on that basis, This Is England sounds, in short, like typical grimesville British filmmaking - concrete, rain and misery. This couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, the film is fizzing with energy and humour, powered by brilliantly engaging performances.
Chief among these is newcomer Thomas Turgoose as Sean, a put-upon 12-year old who finds unexpected friendship with a group of local skinheads led by the sweet natured Woody (Joseph Gilgun, another stand-out performance). These skins are a far cry from the image of racist thuggery that the movement became known for in the 80s. It's all about the music, and of course the clothes - although Sean is too small for Doc Marten boots, he still gets the haircut, the plaid shirt and the braces. For a while, everything is sweet in Sean's world. He even shares his first kiss with a Boy George lookalike with the charming name of Smell.
"A FUNNY AND DEEPLY MOVING PORTRAIT"
But soon, conflict arrives in the form of Combo (Stephen Graham, also superb), an old mate of the gang whose time in prison has left him with a strong sympathy for the National Front. Combo's racist agenda splits the gang and Sean, tragically, finds himself turning to Combo as a substitute for the father he lost in the Falklands. Meadows is an exhilarating filmmaker and This Is England is his best film to date - an honest, emotional, funny and deeply moving portrait of growing up. Don't miss it.

Broken nuclear family- Shaun’s father was lost in the Falkland’s war he was very close to him and so has lost his role model, because of this he lashes out at his mother who is trying to as he sees it control him not allowing him to have the Doc Martins. When he meets the gang (Woody) he finds a new family and when he is introduced to (Combo) he finds the father figure that he has been missing. Stereotypical single mother no money household.
Broken community- Shaun doesn’t get on with the children at school he is also fighting against his mother. With the Skinheads he finds that community, which is defined through the clothing they wear and their political views.
Antisocial behaviour- They are all into criminal behaviour, however what the youngsters do is a lot less than the older ones what they do is a lot less serious. Combo robs a store with a machete.
Racism- There is heavy racism in the film which comes to a climax when Combo violently beats Milky this racism shows the biased views of the time.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2007/04/23/this_is_england_2007_review.shtml

Director- Hettie Macdonald
Writer- Abi Morgan
Release Date- 10th March 2008
Genre- Drama
Award- won best single drama award
Company- Tiger Aspect Productions

White girl is a single length drama based around an eleven year old girl from an unstable British working class family. This is a review from the daily telegraph, with quotes from Maxwell Martin who plays Leah’s father.
Tells the story of a hard-up family who relocate to Bradford. They find themselves in a racial minority, vulnerable and alone in a community they don’t understand, whose customs and religious faith they do not share. The most startling thing about this minority family’s predicament, however, is that they are white.
Maxwell Martin plays Debbie, an illiterate, borderline alcoholic mother of three, who moves her family to a new city to escape her lazy, pot-smoking and abusive husband, Stevie (Daniel Mays). You’d think from this description that Debbie would be a largely sympathetic character. In fact, says Maxwell Martin, she’s, “very frustrating, and not always particularly likeable. You just want Debbie to get a grip and be a mum, which, even after the move, she doesn’t really manage.”
Debbie soon slips back into bad habits and Stevie reappears, joint in hand, which leaves the family’s only responsible member looking after everyone: Debbie’s 11-year-old daughter Leah (Holly Kenny).
Leah, though, is struggling to cope, firstly with her alien surroundings (she and her younger siblings are the only white children at the local school) and then with Debbie’s repeated relapses. Inspired by the example of her classmates and a family of good-natured neighbours, Leah takes refuge in an unlikely place: Islam.
“For me, Leah could have adopted any religion,” says Maxwell Martin. “I don’t think it specifically has to be Islam. Hers is not so much a spiritual awakening as the case of a young girl finding something that gives her solace and a sense of community.”
The sight of Leah wearing a hijab [a Muslim headscarf] at a family wedding enrages Debbie. But, over time, Leah’s religious resolve starts to rub off on her mother. “Debbie has always laid down and taken the punches. She’s very self-pitying. But thanks to Leah’s example, she has a gradual awakening. Debbie realises, almost by osmosis, that she doesn’t have to be guided by Stevie, or her mum, or alcohol. In a way, this is a love story between a mother and a daughter: they’re both trying to reach each other and find an equilibrium.”
There are further fraught battles to be won, not least against Stevie, but White Girl finds cause for optimism in an otherwise bleak situation. “The really wonderful thing about Leah,” says Maxwell Martin, “is that although she berates Debbie, she always has faith in her. And, in the end, I think Debbie wakes up to that.”
Main themes-
Broken nuclear family- The first image is that of the family running away from the father and the last sees the mother and her three children crouched together in their new home.
Broken community- Leah tires to find a new culture to fit in with her new community as she can’t find it in the one that she is in. However there is a British community evident in the drama although it is flawed, when the mother is out for the hen do and at the wedding we are presented with a stereotypical ‘British’ culture. In both situations alcohol is present though making the community flawed. In comparison the Muslim community the attitudes and values seem to be aimed more towards family, happiness and a real community which is bound by their devotion to their religion. This is important as it reverses the stereotypical views we hold on other cultures and suggests that of the British culture is coarse in comparison.
Anti social behaviour- The father is laced in with criminal behaviour, but so is the grandmother which suggests the main role models are flawed. The mother herself is reliant on alcohol. This projects a negative outcome on the children themselves in fact Leah’s brother is being used as a drugs mule by his father. This behaviour is the catalyst for the two above categories.