Born:
December 26, 1972
in
Uttoxeter
Best Known For:
Making a string of low-budget British movies.
Early-life:
Shane Meadows was born on December 26, 1972, in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire. He dropped out of school before taking his O-levels. Thanks to Nottingham-based Intermedia Film and Video, he was allowed to borrow their camcorders and editing equipment in return for working there for nothing. With the help of friends, he started making short films. They eventually hosted their own festival, Six of the Best, which was held every few months in a local cinema. The first of his shorts to attract attention was Where's the Money, Ronnie? Channel 4 bosses were so impressed, Meadows was hired to make a documentary for their Battered Britain series.
Career:
Meadows ploughed the money from that Channel 4 job into Small Time, a movie written in his lunch breaks while at Intermedia Film and Video. Having attracted positive reviews at European festivals, he was given the greenlight to make his first feature, TwentyFourSeven. Bob Hoskins and Bruce Jones starred and it attracted rave reviews on release in 1998. Meadows' follow-up movies, A Room for Romeo Brass and Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, also impressed critics, while Dead Man's Shoes won numerous prizes, including Best Film at The South Bank Show Awards in 2005. Semi-autobiographical drama This Is England in 2006 raised Meadows's profile with a string of awards, including a Bafta for Best British Film. It was followed in 2008 by Somers Town. He made his TV debut with This Is England '86, a four-part spin-off of the film This Is England. This Is England '88 aired on Channel 4 in December 2011.
Quote:
'Whatever I do next, I'd rather fail with something my heart's in, because it's with you for the rest of your life.'
Trivia:
In 2013, he directed the music documentary The Stone Roses: Made of Stone.