I've been watching the three part BBC series The Gallows Pole, a Shane Meadows version of the novel by Ben Myers, based on the true story of a group of poverty stricken workers in 18th century West Yorkshire running a coin counterfeiting scam. Shane Meadows version is huge fun, with some familiar Shane Meadows tropes- an ensemble cast of actors with regional accents, many scenes that appear improvised, copious swearing (and I mean copious fucking swearing on an industrial fucking scale) and some very strong female characters. Shane Meadows approaches period drama as if people were the same then as they are now, just in different clothing and it's a very refreshing take on the past- in one of the scenes the unemployed weavers and farm workers discusses the behaviour of the royal family, concluding 'fuck the king'.
The lead character and coin clipper David Hartley appears at the start of each episode in dreamlike visions with stagmen (all of whom have thick northern accents). At the start of episode one he stumbles around the moors in the mist, a stab wound in his side, the stagmen appearing out of the gloom. The soundtrack is equally striking, a mixture of weird, old English folk, traditional ballads and broadsides, early 70s rock from the likes of The Groundhogs and blistering modern psyche- rock. The opening titles are a blend of 18th century unemployment and 60s psychedelia, men with stag's heads, trippy swirls and distorted guitars.
Each of the three episodes finishes with this song from 2018 by mystic Swedish psyche rockers Goat, a riot of super fuzzed guitar, a drummer running round the kit, spindly lead lines, wailing vox, a flute solo and some hair raising distorted wah wah.
