As the opening episode of This Town begins, police attempt to deal with protests in Birmingham in 1981. Dante Williams (Levi Brown) walks alone while viewers hear his poetry. He ends up in the middle of the protest and gets hit by a baton. He runs from them and loses his bag. Dante sees other protestors who run when they see him. He notices their Molotov cocktails before fleeing. Jeannie Keefe (Eve Austin) runs into him and learns he is just trying to get home. She takes him to a shed and lights a cigarette. After she puts out the fire on her sleeve, Dante refuses to take a puff. He tells a girl at college broke his heart. Jeannine remembers when he climbed onto the school with the black flag of anarchy. He explains why he didn’t climb. Jeannie offers to have a cup of tea with him.

She asks him about his rock-hard brother. Protests happened on Falls Road in Belfast on the same night. A woman screams at Gregory Williams (Jordan Bolger) from her window. He says half his family is Irish. At The Gate Hangs Well Pub, Bardon Quinn (Ben Rose) dances with others. Eamonn (Peter MacDonald) comes in and watches them perform. Bardon wins the competition. After that, he asks his dad if he could’ve waited because he would’ve won anyway. Jeannie offers Dante a lift to the estate. Gregory listens to a bird sing before getting out of the vehicle with the other officers. Another officer informs him they’ve been told to pull out. Gregory tells him what his grandma used to say about a bird’s song not being arranged or organized. He claims this whole thing is about music.

When someone shoots at them, the other officer has to pull Gregory out of danger. At the Hillside Estate, Bardon watches his father leave through the window. Eamonn says he can come give him a hand since they’ll be back before college. Bardon speaks to Marie (Geraldine James) about it. Marie says it’s okay to do the stolen diesel thing because it’s not inhuman. She tells him to do the red diesel, come back, and go to school. Jeannie takes Dante to the Villa Cross Bingo Hall. She’s a delegate for their estate and they’ve been allocated one van-load of liberated goods. They will go to the Happy Trooper pub for distribution. Dante sees a space suit and finds out it’s supposed to be real. Jeannie explains it was mistakenly taken from The Moonlite Club which is owned by Robbie Carmen.

Robbie is the worst gangster in South Birmingham so Dante should leave it alone. Dante takes it anyway. In the van, Jeannie and Dante talk about whether he’s a Zulu. He wants to be a poet. Dante likes Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. He explains he likes the words. Although words come to him, tunes don’t. Jeannie says tunes come to her and she records them sometimes. She tells him this is what she is before playing him a song. Bardon asks his father why they need 28 traffic cones. Jeannie and Dante unload the stuff into the company lockup. Jeannie shows him where to keep the space suit. Eamonn tries to teach Bardon what they’re going to do. Eamonn says the Coventry and Birmingham battalions are self-financing because the people in Dublin give them nothing. 80% of their finances come from laundering red diesel.

The British government puts red dye into diesel sold to farmers since it’s subsidized and only meant for farm use. It’s illegal to sell red diesel for use on the public road so they’re going to remove the red dye. Then, they’ll sell the cheap diesel at normal, retail price. The profits will be used to buy the tools they need to continue the war to liberate the six occupied counties of Northern Ireland. Bardon asks why they’d do that. Eamonn reminds him that some people say he isn’t pulling his weight. He gives Bardon instructions and tells him to do it. At the Chelmsley Wood Estate in Birmingham, Dante says he is going to lie to his dad because he’s going to go mad. He goes inside and tells Deuce (Nicholas Pinnock) he has been seeing double. Deuce thinks he might be in shock after being hit by the police.

Dante blames his heart before telling his dad about getting rejected by Fiona. He claims he is in love with her. Deuce says Birmingham exploded just like he predicted it would two years ago. They talk about Dante writing poems. Deuce warns Dante that he won’t change a woman’s mind when she decides she doesn’t like him. He urges Dante to move on. Marie goes to the confessional at church. She wants to confess something about Bardon and his father. She heard Bardon’s father talking to people in Birmingham about sacks of fertilizer and purchasing detonators. The priest tells her not to listen in on their conversations or say any of these words again. She asks him to speak to the battalion commanders in Coventry and Birmingham and tell them Bardon is not to volunteer for the Ra.

The priest claims not to know what she’s talking about. Bardon continues helping his father with the diesel. Dante runs back to the storage unit to get the spacesuit so he can take it home. Marie goes home and finds a woman in her house. The woman says she is a friend of Eamonn. She knows about Marie’s heart problems. The woman urges her to avoid getting involved in stressful situations. The woman puts up a poster of Bobby Sands before leaving. Marie promptly takes it down. Robbie Carmen (David Dawson) works in his ransacked pub. He is surprised when the spacesuit is returned. He tells Dante that he better explain. Dante says they were going to dump it and he didn’t want that to happen. Robbie learns he likes stars before saying Frankie Laine performed on his stage.

Dante surprises him again by saying he knows who Frankie Laine is. He says his older brother, Gregory, used to work for Robbie. No one is meant to know and he never tells anyone. Robbie asks Dante if he is looking for work. They talk about Gregory who has joined the forces. Robbie complains his doormen let the Zulus in through the staff door last night and they took everything. He got a finger even though he doesn’t do that stuff himself anymore. Robbie claims Gregory or Virgil was the best head of security he ever had. Robbie got a wake-up call to change the venue last night and he is going to need new people. He tells Dante he could earn a grand a week if he is a tenth of what his brother was. Dante leaves without taking his business card.

When Dante leaves, he comes up with a poem he calls brilliant so he quickly writes it down in his notebook. He goes to the record shop where Fiona (Freya Parks) works to look for Leonard Cohen’s New Skin for an Old Ceremony. He tells her that he doesn’t drink alcohol. Dante asks her to listen to the album. When she insults it, Dante tells her she has to listen to the words. He claims he wrote a poem last night that could also be a song. It’s about Fiona. Dante questions if he is wasting his time with her. Before he leaves, Fiona says not completely. Eamonn asks Bardon if he wants him to take him to the college, but he’s already over two hours late. Bardon says he wants to be his own man. Eamonn gets upset with him. Bardon goes inside and checks on his nan.

He finds her unresponsive on the floor of the bathroom. When Dante gets home, Deuce tells him the bad news about his nanny Marie. His cousin Bardon called to say she had a heart attack and died. Dante storms into his room because he’s upset. Eamonn checks on Bardon who tells him he should pray for forgiveness. Eamonn says some merchandise is coming from Birmingham and Bardon will have to make some decisions when it arrives. Lieutenant Colonel Harley (Roger Barclay) questions Gregory about his behavior earlier. Harley reminds him he had an extensive criminal record as a juvenile, but it was overlooked because of his father’s distinguished service. He tells him about his grandma Marie and explains that Gregory will be recommended for three days’ compassionate leave.

Dante climbs on top of a bridge and looks down at the traffic. Jeannie invites him for tea and says she wants to give him something. She gives him a cassette containing tunes she recorded ages ago. Jeannie forgot about them because she can never think of any words. She can do the tunes and he can do the words.

 

This Town Review

The opening episode of This Town was a mixed bag with some strong points and a few low points. The performances are good for the most part although the casting wasn’t great when everything came together. The concept is very interesting, but it seems that the music has been put on the back burner for the time being.

Six episodes will likely be too many considering how tediously slow some of the scenes in the first episode were. At points, it feels like it’s a lot to do about nothing. It may be too ambitious with so many concurrent storylines being juggled. The characters are stereotypical to the extreme. For instance, one is on the straight and narrow while his brother is the polar opposite.

It doesn’t look all that great with some scenes being so dark and others being drained of any colors except blue and grey. While that’s trying to express the bleakness of the era, the story could’ve done that on its own. Some of the camera moves are innovative and somewhat neat although they’re likely unnecessary and maybe even off-putting at times.

This clearly isn’t going to satisfy viewers looking for a historically accurate retelling of the origination of the musical genre since they’re little truth here. At the very least, Dante’s story is interesting enough to hold viewers’ attention. It’s just a shame it gets bogged down by everything else. There’s no need for the rest of it. With the addition of the IRA storyline and everything, This Town replicates so many other shows with a tinge of music hoping to set it apart.

The first episode was easily watchable though and there is promise that Dante and Jeannie will flourish together. The opening episode scores a 6 out of 10. Recaps of This Town are available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent work at this link. Learn more about advertising with us here. Discuss This Town and other shows at the Reel Mockery Forum.