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This England

90 replies

warofthemonstertrucks · 28/09/2022 10:47

I'm off work, ironically with Covid,and started watching this this morning.

Its actually scary how good the acting is.

And it's a bit triggering-it's bringing back some memories of 2020 for sure. I think some people will find it pretty upsetting.

OP posts:
lazymum99 · 03/10/2022 09:21

I have watched 2 episodes and boy it is a hard watch. Can’t really believe we went through that and then I realise that 2 and a half years later and the cases are going up again. 40% up on the week before.
All the main figures are brilliantly acted and really get their mannerisms. But Branagh has made Johnson into some sort of characterture of himself. All that Shakespeare quoting can’t be true. This is diverting from the realism of the rest

Cornettoninja · 03/10/2022 09:48

All that Shakespeare quoting can’t be true. This is diverting from the realism of the rest

I don’t know, I find it quite believable. Especially since it was a book on Shakespeare he was working on.

MarshaBradyo · 03/10/2022 10:22

I can’t watch it yet as too close plus the prosthetics seem unwatchable as so badly done

We did watch a film called Help the other night and a had no idea that it would be set in early pandemic days in 2020

It’s in a care home and I found some of the isolation stuff difficult (and the political message at the end is probably not needed) but the acting is insanely good

Stephen Graham my all time favourite and Jodie Comer who is excellent.

curlywurlygirlie · 03/10/2022 11:46

I've found it very interesting and the likeness of the characters is brilliant.

User287264 · 03/10/2022 13:20

I feel like I needed to watch that. I had a really traumatic lockdown but I've never really processed it and somehow watching the early days of it on this show helped me work through everything a bit.
Obviously that's not going to be true for everyone and some people will find it quite triggering I think, but I found it helpful to watch and cry and relive just how difficult it was. We did so well surviving that, we really did.

EspressoPatronumm · 03/10/2022 21:52

It's very good

Whatafool123 · 04/10/2022 09:31

StrawberryPot · 29/09/2022 08:50

I've reached the point with Lucy Mangan in The Guardian that I know her reviews will never reflect how I feel about a drama/film. Same with This England. She gives it 2 stars and refers to it being 'so sympathetic to Johnson it's bananas'. I've only watched 3 episodes but surely it's anything but? The man is portrayed as the self-obsessed, shallow, unprincipled, moral vacuum that we all know him to be. Wilfully ignoring the inevitable and - again as we all know to be true - following the advice of the last person he spoke to.
She also talks about the sketchy portrayals of people in care homes and members of the public. Again I don't think that's the case - there are some heartbreaking stories and characters in the episodes I've seen.

www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/sep/28/this-england-review-so-sympathetic-to-boris-johnson-it-is-absolutely-bananas

This 100%. I like her other articles, but her reviews always surprise me. I am finding This England really affecting. And very realistic from what I recall. It is amazing how far away it all feels now though. The empty streets, the supermarket queues. I can't believe how quickly it all happened, looking back. And when the newsreader talks about staying at home for 3 weeks. What optimism!

HashtagShitShop · 04/10/2022 21:37

I'm halfway through episode 2. It is absolutely incredible in the worst possible ways.

If Dominic Cummings really did behave in the way that they're portraying (and all evidence of that time leads that way) he is a psychopath.

Boris and Carrie both using government staff (and literally calling them at their desks in Carrie's case) to walk Dylan and do other jobs on work time....

Hats off to all NHS staff 🙁🙁

HashtagShitShop · 05/10/2022 21:43

Just finishing episode 6. Wow.

I just hope this gets a reairing right before the next general election as a gentle reminder for people just how badly wrong they got so much at the worst possible time in living memory as well as their behaviour since.

It took three weeks post lockdown to test people before leaving hospital to go to care homes.... And test staff.... Jesus.

And that fucking badge! He should have shoved it up his arse. It would have done more good

girlfriend44 · 06/10/2022 00:10

I'm watching. All those people who died so sad. Nobody dies now do they, they seem to be ill for a while and get better.

bumpytrumpy · 06/10/2022 16:43

We've watched 5 out of 6.

Boris and Carries relationship is portrayed quite positively. They seem to bounce off each other quite well. I have no idea how realistic that is!

Lots of people getting paid a lot to do very little

Twilightimmortal · 07/10/2022 07:31

I think this is good tv. Oh how much we have forgotten bout the early pandemic especially how e looked t Italy!

Seeing the UK send the ppe to China and wtching the Brexiteers party when we left the Eu 😣

Twilightimmortal · 07/10/2022 07:32

Dominic raab aswell. What a dickhead

Bettyboo12 · 07/10/2022 21:00

Where can I watch this?

EspressoPatronumm · 07/10/2022 21:26

@Bettyboo12 sky tv or maybe now tv?

Rosecoffeecup · 08/10/2022 13:52

I'm just starting episode 2. God its so bizarre watching all of the early pandemic stuff, the growing unease, knowing what is about to come

Redfrangipani · 09/10/2022 02:28

girlfriend44 · 06/10/2022 00:10

I'm watching. All those people who died so sad. Nobody dies now do they, they seem to be ill for a while and get better.

I think in a couple of years time we might get a tv series on how it came about that in 2022, people believed no one died of covid any more..

lazymum99 · 09/10/2022 10:02

I saw that previous statement by girlfriend and I thought it was an attempt at sarcasm. But maybe not.
people are still dying from Covid in 2022. And the figures are going up steeply at the moment

Cornettoninja · 09/10/2022 10:42

I think it’s important to put covid in perspective since vaccine availability. The big problem with covid was it hit the sweet spot between lethality and survivability. It was just enough to be a problem that was too big for healthcare resources in pretty much every country.

Currently we have a virus comparable with a really bad flu. It’s not ‘good’ news but it’s measurably easier to absorb into current infrastructure..:.. or it would be if we didn’t have many other issues with healthcare domestically and globally.

Covid is here to stay and there will always be people who succumb, just as there are always people who are badly affected by every other virus.

it’s not a static situation and it could go either way as it’s still barely only two years old, but in general we have reason to be optimistic about vaccination development and treatments. But I do have issues with the way covid has been handled, people are and will continue to die from it. It’s not going to be eradicated anytime soon.

fleurdelee · 09/10/2022 11:28

FlyingFlamingo · 28/09/2022 21:49

The actor playing Matt Hancock is phenomenal.

The constant clusterfucks of the last 3 years have made me forget so many of the mistakes that got made so it’s making me angry all over again Angry

He is from broadchurch

They are all so good

Redfrangipani · 09/10/2022 11:51

Currently we have a virus comparable with a really bad flu.”

Not going to speak for the UK, but unfortunately, currently the covid virus is not comparable to the flu in Australia.

In Australia, covid death rates for one week are greater than our total annual flu death rate.

I read about ambulance delay time in UK right now, and wonder at what is going to happen in the depths of UK winter?

Australian health care systems are really under strain, but nowhere near the strain that I read that UK NHS is under.

Redfrangipani · 09/10/2022 12:28

I should say , ‘not yet near the strain’

Cornettoninja · 09/10/2022 12:58

@Redfrangipani I should have been clearer but it depends what strain of flu comes to mind. A ‘bad’ flu such as perhaps the Hong Kong strain in the 60’s or something nearing those conditions would result in more deaths despite vaccinations for strains that have previously circulated iyswim. I think 2018 was a particularly bad year but I’d have to look it up. Regardless covid is now in addition to the threat we all already lived with for flus.

I read about ambulance delay time in UK right now, and wonder at what is going to happen in the depths of UK winter?

Luck is going to be the most valuable component of any chance of survival/avoiding long term damage.

out of interest, what’s social care like in Australia at the moment? It’s generally regarded as one of the biggest components in England, certainly at the moment, to availability of emergency care. People can’t be discharged without care packages and that results in a bottle neck.

Redfrangipani · 09/10/2022 21:19

@Cornettoninja

I’m not sure what is meant by social care. Also ‘care packages’ aren’t a thing here unless it’s new since covid.

Earlier this year I attended an emergency department - and was discharged with a letter to my GP stating my reasons for attending & what they found and treatment given.

somehow I don’t think that’s a ‘care package.’

Our health systems seem to me to vary in a major way from UK in regard to management. Each state govt managed its own health system, with cooperation between states. The hospital/ health care system in my state is a behemoth. When it’s under strain we know then things are bad.

One of the differences to the response to Covid in Australia when compared to UK was that because our state govts have quite a bit of power, and this power was amped up by this being a health emergency, State Premiers (often of opposing political parties) worked together and were able to wrestle our then dill of Prime Minister and his Government into a more cautious position. Otherwise we would have had our own version, with variations, of Boris Johnson in charge. (Our then dill of a PM and his federal govt were thrown out at the last election a few months back).

The response to covid was far from perfect in Australia - fed govt fucked up vaccination rollout, and quarantine - but a few differences made for a better early response.

Now, we are more like UK and there are many people here that like to think that covid is little more than a common cold. And govts want to stay in power so they are going along with this - now setting the tone.

WHO has not called the pandemic over. They haven’t even yet called it Endemic - anywhere, afaik.

Sorry for such a long post. Watching This England has shown me how different our two countries are and yet how much the same. And I’ve been thinking about this a lot. So far I’ve come up with old Jack Lang saying (he’s a long dead PM) - “Always back self interest - at least you know it’s trying.”

Cornettoninja · 09/10/2022 21:29

It’s a bit of a digression but it’s interesting.

when people talk about care packages here they’re referring to patients who are medically fit enough to leave hospital care but have been identified as needing support for day to day living. Sometimes that means community care with district nurses attending the patients home for medical needs (managing diabetes maybe) or care workers to support hygiene or mobility. Other times it means nursing/care homes or sorting out home adaptions. Basically a person won’t (shouldn’t) be discharged to an environment that’s unsafe for them.