British Director, scooterist, and older-and-wiser Skinhead Shane Meadows is following up his gritty drama “This Is England” following the racial tensions in England in the early 80s with a four-part television drama for Britain’s Channel 4, “This is England ’86.”

The drama follows the characters established in the film a few years later as they “grow sideways” rather than grow up.

I was the same age as the lead character Shaun (and director Meadows) during both these scenarios and I can’t tell you enough how much both the film and what I’ve seen of the upcoming TV show accurately captures what it felt like at the time. Getting our kicks despite things being grim, jobless and depressing.

In particular I grew up in a town where Skinhead-ism was a major part of youth culture although to be fair, the local Skins were adamantly anti-racist and big supporters of rock-against-racism and other organizations that attempted to distance themselves from Neo-Nazi nationalists who had adopted the skin head look and twisted what the culture stood for. Remember it was born out of the bi-racial background of the Rude Boys.

In fact, in part it’s the Skins that I owe my love of scooters too. When I was a young teenager, the older kids I equal-part looked up to/was terrified of, in the neighborhood had two things in common. They were Skins and they drove scooters being part of the early 80s scooter revival in the UK.

Not sure when we’ll see “This is England ’86″ state-side but we’ll keep you posted. You’ve got to love any trailer that starts out with the sound of two-strokes:

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