The Best of British Cinema: ‘A Room For Romeo Brass’ (1999)
Shane Meadows and Paddy Considine announce their arrivals in this overlooked classic
When I first started discussing my personal ‘Best of British’ films, I had my mind set (for reasons totally unknown to me currently) on only doing one or two films per director. Anyone following the series of articles will have seen, quite clearly, my neverending admiration for the work of the great Ken Loach, and I inadvertently moved away from my limiting rule to such a degree that I now don’t feel bad at all returning to some other directors and discussing their work more (so long as it deserves the discussion, of course!). I have written about five different Ken Loach films, and will likely write about more given time, so why not allow myself to talk about more from the also brilliant Shane Meadows? The same applies to the likes of Mike Leigh, Andrew Haigh, Lynne Ramsay, Alan Clarke and others — it is certainly worthwhile to talk about their work more widely than a single film (or two).
So, where better to start re-writing that rule than by returning to the director who started the ‘Best of British’ column: Shane Meadows. The very first film discussed was This is England, which remains Meadows’ masterpiece (along with the three miniseries which followed the film — these may…
