Coining It In:The Gallows Pole.

"Gather up thy kith and kin, repair all wounds, repent all sin. Then spill the guts of dead man's sack, your kith and kin will take you back"

A Shane Meadows period drama! It's a bit of a curveball. Meadows made his name by brilliantly capturing our lost youths (housing estates, raves, underage drinking, skinheads, low life crime) and he did it so well it's hard to imagine him branching out into Merchant & Ivory or Gentleman Jack territory. A Shane Meadows period drama. It could go either way.

In truth, The Gallows Pole (BBC2/iPlayer, written & directed by Meadows and based on a book by Benjamin Myers) takes a while deciding exactly which way it does want to go. It starts off firmly in Peaky Blinders territory (despite being set nearly two centuries before Peaky Blinders that still seems too obvious a comparison) but ends up more like a heist movie as scripted by someone like Martin McDonagh or even Quentin Tarantino.

Which is no short praise. Those two are known for their electric dialogue and The Gallows Pole, though possibly dafter even than some of McDonagh's more outrageous work, effortlessly moves into that territory except it's based in 18c West Yorkshire during the onset of the Industrial Revolution.

David Hartley (Michael Socha) returns to his home town after seven years away in Birmingham. He's walked all the way (over one hundred miles), he's covered in blood, he appears to have been stabbed, and he's close to death. While he's been away his father has bought the farm and he returns to find himself head of the family.

That family, however, are not exactly overwhelmed to see him. It seems he disappeared without trace, never attempted to make contact with any of them, and ignored all their letters. His wife Grace (a brilliant Sophie McShera) is the most angry but brother William (Thomas Turgoose) is angry too. His two other brothers, Isaac (Samuel Edward-Cook) and taciturn Tom (Dave Perkins) are a bit more welcoming.

The Hartley family, like most others in the town, are really struggling. Times are very hard. The Calder Valley's once thriving textile industry has gone into sharp decline, unused looms sit as painful reminders that fire, steam, canals, and factories have completely changed everything. These people are the victims of the Industrial Revolution.

Once recovered, David sets about winning his family, and the rest of the town, round and comes up with a remarkable get rich quick scheme that involves counterfeiting money (guineas), a crime punishable by hanging. 

To do this, though, he'll need to gain the trust and help of nearly everyone in the town. From the brothel mistress Susie (Nicole Barber-Lane) and her girls Rose (Sharondeep Kaur) and Rita (Emma Chadbourne) and the singing barmaid Barb (Jennifer Reid) to the local holy man Abe (Anthony Welsh) and his wife Bethsheba (Yusra Warsama) as well as old friends like Mandy (Stevie Binns) and James Broadbent (Adam Fogerty). Broadbent's eccentric, and licentious, father Joseph, as a matter of aside, is played by the rather excellently named Fine Time Fontayne.

Oh, and there's also some mythical, or perhaps not, stagmen involved who seem to give David sage, if bizarre, advice while simultaneously taking the piss out of him. The lead stagman is played by Jordan Preston. It's all a bit bizarre. A bit of Robin of Sherwood.

As is everything to do with The Gallows Pole. Including Ralph Ineson's role as the hated Clothier, a landlord who looms large over the village and a regular at the knocking shop. We get to see sex workers making wanking jokes, some beautiful Yorkshire scenery, and enjoy a really lovely set piece when David and Grace (who gets all the best lines) finally catch up with each other's 'news' over the last seven years. 

Basically how many people each of them have slept with. The soundtrack, which - again - can't help remind you of Peaky Blinders, features The Groundhogs, Lankum, Nick Mulvey, and the Dub Pistols doing a grime cover of Peaches by The Stranglers as well as an opening tune from The Mystery Lights and a closing one from Goat and it all underlines what becomes a rather enjoyable romp.

But not much more than that. It's well shot and well acted, it's got - as I keep mentioning - fantastic dialogue and though the story takes a while to get going when it does it's a good one. But it's never truly gripping. It's a bagatelle really. When people look back at Meadow's oeuvre, The Gallows Pole will, connoisseurs aside, be only of canonical interest. But, hey, it's fun.