White Heat (2012)

Genre

drama, war & politics

Country

United Kingdom

Length

1 season, 6 episodes

Rated

TV-14

Rating

5.7 of 10 from 12 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Seven students share a London flat in 1965. The story follows their lives across decades, mixing personal struggles with changing politics. Years later, a death brings the former friends back together again.

nostalgicbittersweetintrospectiveensemble-drivenwistfulgenerationalthoughtfulmelancholic

What happens

White Heat is a British television drama series, written by Paula Milne, and first broadcast on BBC Two from 8 March to 12 April 2012. The series follows seven students who first meet in a London, Tufnell Park flatshare in 1965 and consists of six one-hour episodes, set in 1965, 1967, 1973, 1979, 1982 and 1990. The series was trailed in Radio Times with an article titled Our Friends in the South, an echo of Peter Flannery's 1996 television series Our Friends in the North. Milne herself rejected a direct comparison, however; "Our Friends in the North was absolutely seminal. But it didn't have a lot to do with women, and it didn't have a lot to do with race, and it didn't have a lot to do with sexual politics." Milne, who had experience of both the Central School of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art in the mid-1960s, said her experience most tallied with that of the character Lilly (MyAnna Buring). "The mix of the personal and the political is framed by a flash-forward to the present day, in which the house is revisited by the former friends after one of their number dies and makes them the executors of his or her will." The identity of the dead character is withheld until the final episode. Milne has said she thinks its theme is "the disappointment of the Left. [...] Edward, Jack's father, says to Jack during the 1979 episode (when Margaret Thatcher is elected), that 'this is the end of consensus politics and it's you guys who opened the door and let her in. Just remember that'. Fucking right they did. Excuse my French." The title of the sixth episode comes from the nickname for the Japanese forest Aokigahara. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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