''Made in Britain'' is a 1983 British

television play A television play is a television programming genre which is a drama performance broadcast from a multi-camera television studio, usually live in the early days of television but later recorded to tape. This is in contrast to a television mov ...

written by

David Leland David Leland (born 20 April 1947) is an English film director, screenwriter and actor who came to international fame with his directorial debut ''Wish You Were Here'' in 1987. Life He initially trained as an actor at Central School of Speech ...

and directed by Alan Clarke. It follows a 16-year-old

racist skinhead White power skinheads, also known as racist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads, are members of a neo-Nazi, white supremacist and antisemitic offshoot of the skinhead subculture. Many of them are affiliated with white nationalist organizations and ...

and his constant confrontations with authority figures. It was broadcast on ITV on 10 July 1983 as the fourth in an untitled series of works by Leland (including '' Birth of a Nation''), based on the British educational system, which subsequently acquired the overall title of ''Tales Out of School''. It marked actor

Tim Roth Timothy Simon Roth (born 14 May 1961) is an English actor and producer. He began acting on films and television series in the 1980s. He was among a group of prominent British actors of the era, the " Brit Pack". He made his television debut ...

's film debut.

Plot

Trevor has been tried in court charged with throwing a brick through the window of a

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

i man, Mr. Shahnawaz. Trevor's social worker, Harry Parker takes him to Hooper Street Residential Assessment Centre, where his punishment will be determined.DVD Outsider: Made In Britain Synopsis and Review
. Retrieved 25 June 2008. The centre's deputy superintendent, Peter Clive, admits Trevor and he is allocated a room with Errol. The next day, Trevor leaves the assessment centre to look for jobs. Trevor and Errol break into a car and drive to the job centre. Trevor barges past the queue, demanding a job from the attendant. When asked to wait, he storms out and hurls a brick through the window. After escaping, he then breaks into another car, and takes it and drives away.Channel 4: Made In Britain Review
. Retrieved 25 June 2008. Inside the assessment centre later, Trevor does not cooperate. He demands lunch, only to be informed that he is too late. Trevor viciously attacks the chef
. Retrieved 27 June 2008. before being stopped by care worker Barry Giller (

Sean Chapman Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (anglicized as '' Shaun/Shawn/ Shon'') and Séan (Ulster variant; anglic ...

). Trevor is then held down by the chef and Barry, and locked up in a room.Grunert, Andrea.
Emotion and Cognition: About Some Key-Figures in Films by Alan Clarke
". ''Artbrain''. Retrieved 25 June 2008. The superintendent (

Geoffrey Hutchings Geoffrey Hutchings (8 June 1939 – 1 July 2010) was an English stage, film and television actor. Early life and career Hutchings was born in Dorchester, Dorset, England. After attending Hardye's School, he studied French and Physical Educati ...

) arrives and tells Trevor that he is heading to prison.BFI Screenonline: Made In Britain Review
. Retrieved 25 June 2008. He explains that the assessment centre is Trevor's last chance to change the

cycle of poverty In economics, a cycle of poverty or poverty trap is caused by self-reinforcing mechanisms that cause poverty, once it exists, to persist unless there is outside intervention. It can persist across generations, and when applied to developing count ...

, crime and prison. Uncharacteristically, Trevor is not aggressive and is lost for words. As soon as the superintendent leaves, Trevor is back to his usual self. He rants about his views on race, authority, and the British educational and correctional systems.Nightingale, Chris.
A Taste of the British: Made In Britain Review
". Retrieved 25 June 2008. Eventually Barry and Peter decide to send him to a secure unit. However, while Barry is out making arrangements to send Trevor away, Peter offers to take Trevor

banger racing Banger racing is a tarmac, dirt, shale and chalk track type of motorsport event popular in countries such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands. Vehicles are raced against one another, with the winner being the first to the c ...

if he promises to behave. Trevor accepts. They go to the races and Trevor is given a chance to drive. Trevor seems to enjoy the experience, but gets into an accident, after which his car will not restart. Trevor is unable to complete the race. On the drive back to the assessment centre, Peter informs Trevor that he could join a racing team if he wishes and would need not steal cars any longer. After everybody has retired to bed, Trevor wakes up Errol and shows him Peter's keys, which he had taken. Trevor and Errol make their way into the office and Trevor finds their respective files. Trevor finds a report which says Errol will likely never return home. He drops the files on the floor and tells Errol to urinate and defecate on it. Errol defecates on his files, and Trevor urinates on his.DVD Verdict: Made In Britain Review
". Retrieved 25 June 2008. Trevor and Errol leave the centre, and drive away in the centre's Ford Transit van. They reach Mr. Shahnawaz's neighbourhood and hurl stones through the windows and scream racial slurs. They get into the van and drive away. Trevor drives to a police station, and smashes the van into a car. Errol is rendered unconscious by the impact. Trevor exits the van and runs away, leaving Errol to be apprehended by the police. The next day, Trevor arrives at Harry's home. Harry tells him to go back to the assessment centre before it is too late. Trevor informs Harry of his misadventures, and tells him that he is turning himself in. Harry eventually makes the necessary calls to the police. Trevor is seen in a prison cell, pressing the buzzer in the room. The police officer orders him to keep his hands off the buzzer. Trevor walks away, but returns and proceeds to press the buzzer with his head. This time, another officer, PC Anson (

Christopher Fulford Christopher Fulford (born 1955) is a British actor who is best known for his supporting roles in many British TV shows, one of the earliest being punk Alex in the short lived sitcom '' Sorry, I'm A Stranger Here Myself'' (1981–82). Career Ful ...

) enters, with a truncheon. Trevor continues to provoke the officer. Anson tells Trevor that he would be taken to court in a few days, and this time he will end up in a detention centre or a

borstal A Borstal was a type of youth detention centre in the United Kingdom, several member states of the Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland. In India, such a detention centre is known as a Borstal school. Borstals were run by HM Prison Service ...

, not an assessment centre. Anson brings the truncheon down, hitting Trevor on the kneecap. Anson smiles and says, 'You think you're hard, don't you?' Trevor looks defeated. The warder tells Trevor that he is all talk and has no choice but to respect authority and obey the rules, like everybody else. The play ends with Trevor recovering from the pain and grinning, as the warders shut the door of the cell.

Cast

as Trevor * Bill Stewart as Peter Clive *

as the Superintendent *Terry Richards as Errol * Eric Richard as Harry Parker *

as Barry Giller *

as P.C. Anson

Production

After successful collaborations on previous projects like ''Beloved Enemy'' and ''Psy-Warriors'', writer David Leland and director Alan Clarke were keen to team up again. Producer Margaret Matheson, whom had worked with both Leland and Clarke before (most notably on the original version of '' Scum'') was taking over as Head of Drama at the-then newly created Central Television. Matheson was keen to develop a project about education and a series of four one-off plays eventually broadcast under the umbrella title ''Tales Out of School'' was commissioned. David Leland, when interviewed in 1998, recalled that Clarke was initially reluctant to commit to the directing duties of ''Made in Britain'' - "he was trying then to do ''Contact''; his mind was elsewhere ..it was only because we were friends, we could meet and talk about ''Made in Britain''." ''Made in Britain'' is notable as one of the first British television dramas (and Clarke's first production) to make use of the

steadicam Steadicam is a brand of camera stabilizer mounts for motion picture cameras invented by Garrett Brown and introduced in 1975 by Cinema Products Corporation. It was designed to isolate the camera from the camera operator's movement, keeping th ...

. Fellow director Stephen Frears, who at that point was in the process of editing his film ''Walter'', noted that his cameraman on that project - Chris Menges - was a "huge influence" on Clarke using the steadicam. Recalling the filming process in a 1998 interview, he noted that "''Made in Britain'' was written very powerfully, and it had these rather long sequences which posed certain technical problems ..he larkefound a piece of equipment that liberated him from that." Clarke became so enamored with the technical properties of the steadicam that it would be used repeatedly throughout the rest of his filmed work throughout the 1980s, most notably on the BBC dramas ''Christine'' (1986), ''Road'' (1987), ''Elephant'' and ''The Firm'' (both 1989). Former BBC director of plays Chris Morahan noted that "Steadicam was the trigger for his creativity." Despite being a production relatively free of complications, problems arose with the filming of the original ending. As scripted, the final shot of the production was to feature Trevor, now confined to a borstal, digging trenches in the backyard with all the other inmates and encouraging them to 'dig for Britain'. As David Leland noted in a 2016 interview accompanying the re-release of the play for ''Tales Out of School'' DVD collection, "I'm a country boy...I assumed everyone knew what trenching was." Director Clarke misunderstood the directions in the script, resulting in a scene where the borstal inmates are digging seemingly randomly placed holes. Deemed unsatisfactory and with insufficient funds to re-film it, the televised film closes on a freeze-frame of Trevor's grinning face in police custody. Screenshots and script directions from the original ending are enclosed on the aforementioned DVD.

Music

The music in the opening scene is the song "UK82" by Scottish punk rock band

The Exploited The Exploited are a Scottish punk rock band from Edinburgh, formed in 1979 by Stevie Ross and Terry Buchan, with Buchan soon replaced by his brother Wattie Buchan. They signed to Secret Records in March 1981,

. The album '' Council Estate of Mind'' by

Skinnyman Skinnyman (born Alexander Graham Holland, 9 November 1974) is a British rapper who was born in Chapeltown Leeds, Yorkshire and moved to Finsbury Park, London at a young age. He grew up on the Six Acres Estate next to Andover Estate. Among his ...

extensively samples the dialogue of the film.

References

External links

* *
Made in Britain
at the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery (United Kingdom), National Lot ...

*
Transcript by David Leland
{{DEFAULTSORT:Made in Britain 1982 films 1982 television films 1980s coming-of-age films 1980s crime drama films 1980s prison films 1980s teen drama films British coming-of-age drama films British prison drama films British teen drama films Coming-of-age drama films Films about race and ethnicity Films about racism Films directed by Alan Clarke Skinhead films Social realism in film 1980s gang films Films about fascists Films about neo-Nazis Films about anti-fascism 1982 drama films 1980s English-language films 1980s British films British drama television films