The Virtues (new Shane Meadows drama)

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

This four-part series starts on Channel 4 on 15th May.

I've just watched a screener of the first episode and found it quite intriguing. Tense, queasy and grim, in typical Meadows style.

Stephen Graham plays a fucked-up bloke who... well, I don't really know what's wrong with him as the first episode derives its power from not knowing who this guy is. You spend an hour in his company, unsure of what's driving him or where he's heading. It's redolent of Dead Man's Shoes in that sense - we're gradually drip-fed information about a complex, ambiguous character and his past. It's loaded with dread.

Graham is incredible, few actors can match him when it comes to portraying vulnerable, self-destructive characters full of rage and regret.

Anyway, it's probably something you might want to watch.

[lebowskibukowski]

That scene in This Is England when he is listening to Milky talk about his childhood is one of my favourite bits of cinema ever, he acts it fucking perfectly. Am quite excited about this

[paruses]

Also excited.

Having watched a lot of Line of Duty over the weekend and up to last night Vicki McClure sounds more and more like Lol has had made me want to watch that whole thing again, or just some SM stuff so this is great news.

Also I appear to be in love with Vicki McClure.

[Dannyhood91]

That scene in This Is England when he is listening to Milky talk about his childhood is one of my favourite bits of cinema ever, he acts it fucking perfectly. Am quite excited about this

To this day, knowing what comes next, always makes me feel extremely uncomfortable.

Then he calls Meggy a goggle eyed prick and it makes me laugh a bit.

[Twit 2]

Devastating interview:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/may/05/shane-meadows-interview-the-virtues-stephen-graham-trauma

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I'm sure this will be great television and all, but by Christ am I sick of that fucking trailer airing around the bloody clock.

"It's Jeeyoseph."

Fuuuuuck ooooooooffffffff!!!!!!!

[BritishHobo]

Can't wait for this. I'm watching This Is England at the moment (and Dead Man's Shoes starts on Film4 about two minutes after it's due to end) and fucking hell I forgot how electrifying it is. Stephen Graham when Combo gives that speech about England and immigrants and the Falklands. And the moment at the start of that scene where, having been the cause of everything in the first place, he turns on Woody as a snake in the grass for not standing up to him. Just incredible, real, nasty fucking performance, fucking hell it's good.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Channel 4 at 9pm tonight, folks. Your ribs, they will be tickled.

[non capisco]

Graham is incredible, few actors can match him when it comes to portraying vulnerable, self-destructive characters full of rage and regret.

He really, really is. The entirety of the long pub scene was just incredible.

I'm guessing I shouldn't read that Meadows interview linked to above if I don't want to know what's going on.

[Phil_A]

Jesus, that was intense. Incredibly powerful even though not much has happened yet.

Really does feel like it's Stephen Graham's moment, what an actor.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I'm guessing I shouldn't read that Meadows interview linked to above if I don't want to know what's going on.

It does explain the premise, yes, but it's definitely something you should read once the series is finished.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Really does feel like it's Stephen Graham's moment, what an actor.

He has an extraordinary onscreen ability to make you feel unnerved and sympathetic. Will he explode into violence? Break down in tears? Both all at once? I really do think, without a hint of hyperbole, that he's one of the greatest actors of our time.

[gib]

He has an extraordinary onscreen ability to make you feel unnerved and sympathetic. Will he explode into violence? Break down in tears? Both all at once? I really do think, without a hint of hyperbole, that he's one of the greatest actors of our time.

SPOILER for ep1:






My god the amount of fights that never happened in that pub scene.

I reckon this could be excellent, all show and zero tell so far.

[fatguyranting]

The pub scene had me in floods of tears. The whole thing felt horribly familiar. Gain some confidence with a few drinks. Chat to random strangers. Shit lines. Near fights. Stumbling home. Devastating, heart-breaking stuff.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Just finished watching the whole thing (there are four episodes in total). Fucking hell. I was in tears for most of it.

I shrink from hyperbole as a rule, but Shane Meadows is a phenomenal TV/film-maker* and Stephen Graham really does deserve his reputation as one of the greatest living actors. Niamh Algar and Helen Behan are outstanding too.

* He's the undisputed master of creating unbearably tense scenes set in shitty pubs and unremarkable living rooms. How does he do it?

[peanutbutter]

Is it all out already?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The pub scene had me in floods of tears. The whole thing felt horribly familiar. Gain some confidence with a few drinks. Chat to random strangers. Shit lines. Near fights. Stumbling home. Devastating, heart-breaking stuff.

Absolutely, it was so horribly, tragically authentic. Graham's 'drunk acting' was a masterclass in how it should be done.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Is it all out already?

Apologies, a glib assumption on my part: I'm a TV critic, so I watch this stuff in advance. I'd never spoiler anything, obviously, but I sometimes comment on programmes fellow Cabbers might be interested in.

[sevendaughters]

not seen this yet but despite a couple of mis-steps in Le Donk and Stone Roses bollocks that Meadows remains probably the best British director of the last 25 years.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

not seen this yet but despite a couple of mis-steps in Le Donk and Stone Roses bollocks that Meadows remains probably the best British director of the last 25 years.

I agree. Le Donk is two mates pissing about with a private joke that should've remained private. It's not bad as such, it's just nothing. A throwaway DVD extra at most (the idea of Le Donk being a bonus feature on the Dead Man's Shoes DVD is funnier than Le Donk itself).

The Stone Roses concert film is unintentionally tragic. Fair enough, Shane, you're a fan, but was that wet fart of a comeback really worth chronicling?

He also made that little film for Eurostar with Thomas Turgoose, which was nice enough but forgettable.

I haven't seen Once Upon a Time in the Midlands. It received some sniffy reviews at the time, but is that because it was Meadows trying - and possibly failing - to branch out into more mainstream territory?

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Powerful stuff indeed, but it was a bit padded out, wasn't it? The Spike Lee style scene of Jeyoseph continuing his pissup after leaving the first pub felt very tacked on.

[Jockice]

not seen this yet but despite a couple of mis-steps in Le Donk and Stone Roses bollocks that Meadows remains probably the best British director of the last 25 years.

This is probably blasphemy but I think This Is England should have stayed as a one-off. I tried to watch the subsequent series' but I never made it through any of them, eventually realising that I simply didn't care about these people.

Dead Man's Shoes was brilliant but I can take or leave the rest of his output. And that Stone Roses thing wasn't just bollocks, it was utter bollocks.

[sevendaughters]

I am a defender of the TIE series, though maybe 90 could have been shorn an episode to rid itself of a few teary-eyed piano montages.

[rjd2]

This is probably blasphemy but I think This Is England should have stayed as a one-off.

Maybe elsewhere, but the show got plenty of criticism here tbf.
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=24549.120
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=30270.0
https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=49097.150

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The TIE spin-off series is such a weirdly mixed bag. Initially it presented itself as a broad, unfunny comedy show, a sort of Midlands-based Shameless, utterly at odds with the tone of the original film. As it progressed, it became more in tune with Meadows' usual style - a serious, harrowing social-realist drama and character study leavened by occasional moments of dry humour.

It's definitely worth sticking with, but I do understand why people might be put off by the first couple of episodes. 

[rjd2]

I might do a rewatch before the end of the year. Some of the comic stuff was genuinely funny " I'M HERE FOR THE GINGE" and Harris is one of the most compelling villains we have seen on British TV for decades.
1988 also gave us one of my favorite scenes ever. Astonishing acting from all involved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqV3sonVEgY

[wooders1978]

Powerful stuff indeed, but it was a bit padded out, wasn't it? The Spike Lee style scene of Jeyoseph continuing his pissup after leaving the first pub felt very tacked on.

This is the drinkers mentality excellently portrayed I thought

[Bazooka]

I tried to watch this last night on 4od, but as with most of my time on this planet, its spent clicking the 'forgotten password' option and never getting any content.

[thugler]

That was amazing in terms of incredible sustained tension and my own recognition of horrendous drunken behavior. I do think meadows is great at what he does but it's basically all the same combination lighter humorous moments and horrible bleak incidents.

[shiftwork2]

The Spike Lee style scene of Jeyoseph continuing his pissup after leaving the first pub felt very tacked on.

I didn't get that at all, there was a lot to learn about him through it - the religion aspect for one thing.

Very much looking forward to the rest of this.  Oh and Sinbad as a jobsworth ferry man!