In this series of reviews, I recommend some very interesting full-length movies and shows on Youtube.
Willy Russell is a well-known British playwright, screenwriter, and author. One of his screenplays is the delightful miniseries One Summer which aired on Channel 4 in August and September 1983. It comprises five films, each around an hour in length. They can all be found on YouTube free of charge.
The opening scene of One Summer, showing the centre of Liverpool (still taken from the movie)
One Summer is a wonderful adventure series about two adolescent boys from Liverpool, Billy and Icky, who flee from the city and take the train to Wales, where they get into contact with nature, the wildlife and the native population and their customs. The major contrast of the movie is the one between the hectic, gang-infested and crime-ridden life of inner-city youths and the seemingly idyllic life in the countryside.
Billy (top, played by David Morrissey) and Icky (bottom, played by Spencer Leigh) hanging around the streets of Liverpool while school is on (still taken from the movie)
The movie starts by showing Billy’s and Icky’s daily conflicts in the city of Liverpool. They have not shown up in school for months. Instead, they are part of a gang, get into fights, and barely escape death by the knife of opposing gang members. They rob and steal and get cautioned by law enforcement officers. Billy’s mother is addicted to bingo. A habit which has allegedly ruined her marriage and left the family in financial disarray. By chance, Billy learns about a planned school trip to Wales during the summer but him and Icky are not eligible to take part because they have not shown up in school for so long. So, when Billy’s mother wins a large sum at a bingo game one night, he steals it from her a couple of days later and invites Icky to go to Wales with him.
Both Billy and Icky have no idea about Wales and do not even know which train station they want to go to. Therefore, they end up buying the wrong tickets and they have to jump out of the moving train, fleeing from prosecution. After they land safely, there is perhaps one of the most iconic scenes of the movie when both boys pull the ties out of their school uniforms and start singing You’ll Never Walk Alone, a chant that became famous in the stadium at Anfield Road, home of Liverpool Football Club. This overjoyed expression of freedom is a very moving moment of this movie.
Billy and Icky singing You'll Never Walk Alone (still taken from the movie)
However, this freedom soon meets numerous challenges. Billy and Icky meet a mentor by the name of Kidder (played by James Hazeldine) who teaches them a lot about life and the viewer gets to see both boys mature with every scene. But the new-found friend also had reasons of his own to flee from the city to the countryside. This constellation of three people on the run provides the miniseries with plenty of suspense. Will they make it or will their old city lives catch up with them?
Playwright Willy Russell, author of One Summer (photo: Paul Cooper, telegraph.co.uk)
Scrolling through the comments to One Summer, it becomes apparent that many people in England have fond memories of the first airings of this series. Everybody seems to remember particularly funny or moving scenes from the show – even 30 years after watching it. I would even say that One Summer is an almost forgotten, vintage icon of 1980s British entertainment. It seems that everybody, who was a child or adolescent then, had watched it. The Gallagher brothers of Oasis are said to be fans.
But what makes One Summer such a cult film? I would say it is a mixture of the excellent screenwriting by Billy Russell that provides twists and turns in the plot, many personal conflicts and plenty of suspense. But it is also the overall style of the movie. The rotten terraced houses in Liverpool that in part can still be visited today, the looks and clothes of the protagonists, the gang life, and also the music of the movie are all very special.
Alan Parker provided an iconic, bass and harmonica-driven soundtrack that makes sure this film also stands out acoustically. The soundtrack was restored from Parker’s personal vault and first released decades after the first airing of the movie. It can be purchased from Finder’s Keepers Records.
http://www.finderskeepersrecords.com/shop/alan-parker-one-summer/
The cover to Alan Parker's soundtrack shows a typical school uniform worn by Billy and Icky (source: Finder's Keepers Records)
Watch the movie here:
If you would like to support the movie and everybody involved, you can buy the DVD set online.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Summer-Complete-Disc-Set/dp/B000BSQQWC