Shane Meadows’s most personal film is his best, combining the director’s impeccably observed comedy with a gathering storm cloud of ominous ill will.

How sad and predictable is the fate of those who counsel violence as a means to an end. And yet how poignant it all seems when viewed through Shane Meadows' thoughtful lens.

You wouldn't think a film about a group of British skinheads during the early 1980s could be a sweet, nostalgic coming-of-age period piece, but that's the surprise of the authentic, fresh and utterly relevant This Is England.

Simply put, this is one the greatest British films of the 21st century.