Interview with Thomas Turgoose who plays Shaun

3 September 2015

This Is England 90 is coming up. Is it all set around the World Cup and the rave culture?

Yeah, the whole 90s Madchester thing with the Happy Mondays and the Stone Roses is all in there, and there’s a bit of a reference to the World Cup, but not that much. It’s four parts, and each past is a different season. I think Shane had planned to do a bit more around the World Cup, but the stuff we did on set I think changed that. It was really intense, and everyone just kind of stepped it up this time.

 

Does that mean things are a bit happier for the gang this time around, or will we still have traumas to undergo with them?

There’s a bit going on! It’s like the previous ones, it’s up-and-down. It’s the one where you see the gang having the most fun, definitely, but having said that, while there’s good stuff for some people there’s shit going on in other people’s lives.

 

When we left things in ’88, Shaun had made a bit of a mess of things. Where is he at the start of this series?

He’s just having fun with all the lads. He’s going to the raves. He goes and sees Smell, to see if he can sort things out, but there’s so much water under the bridge. He’s happy. He’s just loving his life.

 

You must be pleased with that – you’ve said before you’d like Shaun to be a bit less ‘mardy’ and miserable.

Yeah. It always seems that every time I’m doing This Is England, every scene I’m doing I’ve got a frown on my face. So it is good to get on it and have a good laugh. I had loads of fun making this one – not that I didn’t have fun making the others, I loved it, but it was more fun for this one. It was good.

 

This will be the fourth time you’ve played Shaun – what do you think of him?

He’s dead similar to me, I think. Shaun and I have gone through a lot of the same shit in our lives – losing a parent quite young and all that kind of stuff. I love going out and getting pissed with my mates, as does Shaun. If I could keep playing Shaun until I was 50, I’d be fucking buzzing, I just love it.

 

Is it easier to make a series where all the cast know each other and you all know your characters?

Yeah, it is. It’s still nerve-wracking, even though we all know each other and we’re a family. I could ring Milky or Shane at any time in the morning if I ever had anything that I needed to talk about. But the day before you go on set for the first time, or you’re meeting up for a read-through, and you’re in a hotel at night, it is nerve-wracking, as it is with any job. You’d think, with this, it wouldn’t be. But as soon as you’ve been on set for five minutes, it’s just like you’ve not been apart.

 

I’m interested to hear you have read-throughs. With Shane Meadows projects, is there any point, bearing in mind how much the script changes as you go along?

We don’t really have a read-through, we meet at the Warp offices and then go to the pub. But Shane never sticks to the script, ever. And Channel 4 has so much trust in him. They know that he’s going to create something amazing.

 

A lot of that creativity comes from the cast, doesn’t it? There’s a lot of improvisation.

Yeah, it’s a team effort from everyone. If we meet up a week before filming starts, and we spend as week together, all the stuff that we talk about and have banter about, we take that on set, and when they say action, we’re taking the piss out of each other. It’s good fun, and it shows that the more time you spend with people, the better the chemistry gets. There’s nowt worse than getting on set, say if you’re doing a film where there’s two young lads, and you’ve never met and you go on set, it’s kind of reflected. With us, we all know each other, and we know there’s no limit to what we can say to each other. We’re all so close, it reflects on screen.

 

We’re told that this is the last This Is England. How did it feel at the end?

It was a bit weird saying goodbye at the end – but who knows whether this really will be the end? You never know. ’88 was meant to be the last one as well, so who knows? He needs to keep going, I’ve got a mortgage I need to pay now!

 

What have been your favourite scenes or storylines over the years?

There was a really good one this series. There’s a scene where a load of the gang are meant to be going to a rave, but they end up getting lost and having a party in the middle of this festival. That was really good fun to film. There were six cameras and probably a hundred extras, and they said to us “Just go and have a laugh with everyone. We could come up to you and take you off and there’s a scene you might have to do,” and that was it. It’s all been brilliant, to be honest. There’s not been a day when I’ve felt “I can’t be arsed with work today.” It’s always good fun.

 

Being paid to go and have a party with your mates? It doesn’t sound like a bad job!

No, other than being a professional footballer on £300 grand per week.

 

There’s only just over a year between the end of This Is England 88 and the start of This Is England 90, but they were filmed four years apart. Did that pose any problems?

Not really. I’m the youngest in the cast at 21, and so we’d all pretty much stopped doing our growing. And it’s good to have changed a bit. Woody’s got a massive beard in this. I think Shane wanted to leave a bit of time between the series.

 

You mentioned the Madchester thing. As we know, Shane is a huge Stone Roses fan – was he constantly playing their stuff to you to get you into the 90s state of mind?

Yeah, yeah, all the time. Say, if there was a big rave scene, he’d get a DJ in, dress him up in 90s clothes, put him up on stage and go “you’re an extra now.” At one point we had Serge, from Kasabian, DJing, so we had him dressed up in 90s clobber, and he was an extra for the day.

 

How has This Is England changed your life?

In every way possible, I think. When I was growing up, I was brought up on a rough estate. I loved it, but I was destined for jail or working in a factory for the rest of my life, and probably more on the jail side of it. But as soon as I got cast in This Is England… And as soon as I finished filming This Is England, my mum passed away. It was growing up overnight. It made me appreciate the opportunity I’d been given, and I grabbed it with both hands. It’s given me a career, something to do in life. I’ve just bought my first house with my missus, which is gorgeous. If it wasn’t for this, I might not have been able to do it. It’s just given me a really, really happy life.

 

You recently appeared on Football Focus – what was that like?

It was before the Conference Playoff Final and it was good fun. I’ve been a [Grimsby] Town fan for years and years, and for the BBC to ring me and ask me to interview the manager and a couple of players was an honour. I’ve had a season ticket for years, watched them week-in, week-out, so to go training with them and interview them was a good laugh. There’s not many people can say they’ve had a kick about with the Town first team. And then going to Wembley was brilliant. It’s just a shame we couldn’t cope with the pressure of penalties, but it was a fucking good day out.

 

If you thought that was a painful defeat, I’m now going to ask you about appearing on Celebrity Pointless recently…

[Laughs] I filmed it back in January, but it was on the other week. I’ve just been up to London and filmed it again. Fucking hell! Made a knobhead of myself again! I dunno if I’m allowed to give the results away, but I made myself look stupid. But it’s good fun, I go there and I enjoy it. I don’t take it seriously. It’s good fun and it’s all for charity and stuff.

 

This Is England ‘90 starts on Channel 4 on Sunday 13th September at 9pm