The Gallows Pole

I've seen all of Shane Meadow's work, apart from his doc on The Stone Roses. I've loved all of it. This, not so much.

Not sure what to think of this adaptation of a novel by Benjamin Myers.

The beginning of episode one had hints of Ben Wheatley's A Field in England. Once past the slightly surreal section, we get to what Meadows does best: cast improvisation. What we get is history in Meadows style. This Is England 1765. It's initially jarring, but I got used to it. However some scenes needed a better editor. Dialogue exchanges tended to go on longer than needed with no plot development whatsoever.

On the positive, Meadows provides a non traditional, raw look at Yorkshire in the mid 18th century. It's grim up North.

The music choices are superb, mixing folk with psych rock, and traditional songs sung by the cast. I particularly liked the tracks by Goat. Easily found on bandcamp by the way.

This three part series was clearly meant to be continued. Anyone familiar with the book and/or the history, will know the grisly details of where this story ends up at. The series seemed like an introduction.

Whilst not the best of Shane Meadows work, in my view, doesn't mean to say I wouldn't watch a second series. I feel there's more to offer.

It might seem strange to some that in the rancid poverty and disease of the 18th Century, people didn't act, talk or swear in the same manner as Laurence Oliver in the Hays Code of the 1940's, but it seems logical that the mostly uneducated, underprivileged classes, now even worse off thanks to The Industrial Revolution might conceivably be quite annoyed, most of the time.

Downton already exists as a TV show, which is fine, but is written from exactly the other end of the same principle. Also best not to dignify the argument that there were " people who wouldn't have been there" as we cannot all hear dog whistles. Best to just check the facts there.

Having said that, it's a little bit too Steven Knight for me, it's certainly a placeholder episode and naturally slower for it. It's good to see the old TIE crew finally back, and the pace will definitely pick up come episode two.

The cinematography, especially at the beginning, should win awards.

I'm local to Cragg Vale so really wanted to enjoy this. Yes it's watchable but ending poor and nothing about what happened after for viewers who don't know. Sadly there's much better historical dramas out there, love to see this remade in the future but done right. The characters came across quite wooden I wanted to like it more but fell short.

Also going all Peaky Blinders and playing modern music didn't do it for me! The stag scenes were just ludicrous almost comical just doesn't sit well for an historical drama.

There so much more that could have been made of this, let's hope someone picks up the reigns maybe make a film of it.

Shane Meadows brings us the tale of the Cragg Vale coiners in a strange tonal mash of modern improv and psychedelic folk horror. It's an intoxicating brew but the three-part first series is bizarrely paced and seems to shudder and stall like it thinks it has Vince Gilligan levels of set up time to waste. The cast are mostly great and I adore Thomas Turgoose. The 18th C mixed with retro garage psych music is also exactly my jam but the use of artificially generated artwork in the title sequence sticks deeply in my craw (and seems rather against the themes of the show) so it very much is a project of two halves for me.

Well - this seems to have split people! Lots of 1/10's, lots of 10/10's!

1/10 or 10/10? I'd suggest neither mark-giver is really worthy of any attention?

It's an informative, well-delivered and infectious depiction of the real story of the Cragg Valley Coiners - a community of cottage weavers who, deprived of their trade during the early years of the industrial revolution, turned to a much simpler, though criminal, way of making money.

The nature of the crime is clearly played out as the local squire gets aboard - coin-cutting. Now, we may know similar modern parallels, but this was simply edging the gold from guineas to make more guineas. Incidentally, the Cragg Valley Coin Cutters cause a major problem to the British economy at the time.

Wooden acting? Give me a break. Shane Meadows is a master at allowing improvisation. I love it. It's intended, btw.