The Gallows Pole

Prior to this everything Shane Meadows has touched has been gold. Unfortunately bringing his oft-repeated style of improvisational dialogue into a period drama is a misfire.

I do have an issue with a period drama that doesn't quite stick to the period it's supposedly portraying. The trouble with actors improvising as a character from another time is that they won't always be able to stay 100% in that character without occasionally slipping and using modern parlance, which happens quite often here.

I managed two out of the three episodes and really could not continue to the last one. The pacing is at a snail's pace which is borne out of unnecessarily-long scenes of constant 'natural' talking which if given a proper script would've tightened it up and made for sharper dialogue thus giving it an energy instead of the sleep-inducing borefest it quickly became.

I've seen all of Shane Meadow's work, apart from his doc on The Stone Roses. I've loved all of it. This, not so much.

Not sure what to think of this adaptation of a novel by Benjamin Myers.

The beginning of episode one had hints of Ben Wheatley's A Field in England. Once past the slightly surreal section, we get to what Meadows does best: cast improvisation. What we get is history in Meadows style. This Is England 1765. It's initially jarring, but I got used to it. However some scenes needed a better editor. Dialogue exchanges tended to go on longer than needed with no plot development whatsoever.

On the positive, Meadows provides a non traditional, raw look at Yorkshire in the mid 18th century. It's grim up North.

The music choices are superb, mixing folk with psych rock, and traditional songs sung by the cast. I particularly liked the tracks by Goat. Easily found on bandcamp by the way.

This three part series was clearly meant to be continued. Anyone familiar with the book and/or the history, will know the grisly details of where this story ends up at. The series seemed like an introduction.

Whilst not the best of Shane Meadows work, in my view, doesn't mean to say I wouldn't watch a second series. I feel there's more to offer.

David Hartley returns to his home town after several years away, guided by visions of Stag Men, he presents his community with an unusual, but lucrative business opportunity.

I do get a little worried now when The BBC does a historical, they were always so reliable, recent clunkers like Great Expectations hardly fill you with confidence. The Gallows Pole however is something very different.

It's definitely contemporary, visually and in terms of dialogue, I'm sure there was a degree of improvisation, at times it feels quite free flowing.

It isn't going to be for everyone, and I can understand why people may quit at Episode one, it was slow moving, and a bit heavy, but it definitely improves as it develops, pacing also improves somewhat.

I was very excited when this was announced a few years back, checking the original announcement, it was planned as a six part series, it gives me hope that this show will be back for a second run.

I'd be staggered if this didn't win awards for its production, it's a decadent looking series, the camera work, costumes and settings are wonderful. The accompanying music alters the mood significantly, at times it's haunting and atmospheric, it works so well.

The acting impressed me, Michael Socha and Sophie McShera both really stood out.

Nice little touches, I loved the quirky titles for the production team during those lengthy opening credits.

It took me some time to get into, I wasn't crazy early on, but I'm glad I stuck with it.

7/10.

I've rarely seen an opening episode with so little action and so much rambling pointless dialogue. I'm a huge fan of Shane Meadows and have been since the 90's but the Gallows Pole is I'm afraid a big old-fashioned fail.

Tonally there were some very odd choices, the dialogue was completely modern and it was the sweariest script I've seen on the BBC in many a year with constant effing and blinding that added nothing and will turn lots of people off.

The cast was very hit and miss with no stand outs for me, protagonist David was a shouty, sweary enigma. The weakest element was definitely the script, in this case adapted by the writer of the original novel himself. The dialogue was really verbose with tons of over-written exposition.

Bizarre credits sequence and strangely shot in widescreen which added nothing. At times it resembled a weak 1760's version of Brassic. I gave it to the end of the episode, but I'm out now.

Shane Meadows brings us the tale of the Cragg Vale coiners in a strange tonal mash of modern improv and psychedelic folk horror. It's an intoxicating brew but the three-part first series is bizarrely paced and seems to shudder and stall like it thinks it has Vince Gilligan levels of set up time to waste. The cast are mostly great and I adore Thomas Turgoose. The 18th C mixed with retro garage psych music is also exactly my jam but the use of artificially generated artwork in the title sequence sticks deeply in my craw (and seems rather against the themes of the show) so it very much is a project of two halves for me.