This TownBBC1
1981. For those that can't remember, or were not yet born, the 80s wasn't all New Romantics, Big Hair, shoulder pads and City-boy yuppies with Porche 911 turbos. At the start of the decade there was mass unemployment, recession, inner city riots and general miserableness. The Thatchertolla was the most unpopular PM on record (the Falklands War and an improvement in the economy saved her bacon in 1982). As a young person though, it was a golden era for music. Punk was waning, being replaced by New Wave, post-punk, a Two-Tone led ska revival and electronica. Rap was really growing and disco/soul/jazz-funk dance music was huge. It means that my record collection is MUCH better than yours, you loser.
Out of this era comes a prime time series from the creator of Peaky Blinders. Now, I never watched PB, so I can't say if that's a good thing or a bad thing. However, I'm three episodes in and I'm really enjoying it, despite a couple of minor reservations. Set in Birmingham and Coventry, this is a multi-path story centered on an extended family who are a mixture of Irish and Jamaican immigrants and more importantly, their first generation children.
Lead character Dante is a weird lad, a poet and a dreamer (yeah, calling the poet Dante is annoying, when his elder brother gets saddled with Gregory). Said brother Gregory is a proper hard geezer who was a bouncer for a local gangster (who is at the heart of another thread in the story) but joined the army to get away from what his life was becoming. Their cousin Bardon is the son of an IRA man, part of an active cell in Coventry, who are keen to pull Bardon into the cause. Skinhead girl Jeannie is a musician who wants Dante to write the lyrics to her songs, their friendship leading to some serious violence involving her boyfriend and his mates, a bunch of skinheads who are part of the Birmingham City Zulus. Bardon is a good singer, having been raised to sing Republican rebel songs. The story's arc presumably sees them forming a ska band to get away from their various problems but we'll see.
The acting is good across the entire cast, especially the young leads. The look of the thing is great too (shitty, graffiti covered underpasses, grim tower blocks, scruffy council estates and awful pubs. The clothes are great too). It made me very nostalgic. It's definitely worth you giving it a go.
BTW the soundtrack is bloody great; lots of bangers but with a few odds and sods inserted to support the narrative.:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hmh357 I have high hopes for this, and it'll be my next binge.
As for music. Peaky Blinders had the most exquisite soundtrack. Almost as if they raided my record collection. It was outstanding.