This Is England ’86

I posted last night after the last episode went out that I thought this was one of the best things I had ever seen on TV, then I took it down because I thought I was being a bit previous.

But I slept on it now, and yes, it definitely is.

Wherever you live, wherever you are, try to see this series, it’s harrowing in places, but you won’t regret it.

Does Children’s Television Matter?

“Suppose, if you will, that I am part of a silent Martian invasion and that my intention is slowly to destroy the whole culture of the human race. Where would I start? I would naturally start where thought first grows. I would start with children’s television. My policy would be to give the children only the sort of thing that they ‘already know they enjoy’, like a fizzing diet of manic jelly-babies. This would no doubt be exciting, but their hearts and their minds would receive no nourishment, they would come to know nothing of the richness of human life, love and knowledge, and slowly whole generations would grow up knowing nothing about anything but violence and personal supremacy. Is that a fairytale? Look around you.”

Oliver Postgate

via