The film unfolds in brief episodes, detailing the travails of the working-class Pollock family, who live in a shabby flat in a tower block in London's East End. They are struggling to stay afloat during the recession under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's premiership. Only the nagging, put-upon mother Mavis is working; the bitter, feckless father Frank and the couple's two sons Colin, an extremely shy young man, and Mark, his outspoken, headstrong older brother, are on the dole. Their aimless, querulous existence is contrasted with Mavis's sister Barbara and her husband John, whose financial and social loftiness in suburban Chigwell serves as a comfortable facade for their lacklustre marriage. The boys spend their time at home, on the street, at friends' flats, in the unemployment office, and at the local pub. Mark is continually scrounging for cash and cadging drinks from his friends, among them Coxy, a crude, impulsive skinhead. Colin has a crush on a sweet-natured girl named Hayley, but he can't bring himself to act upon it. Mark mocks his father, teases Colin by calling him "Kermit" and "Muppet," and makes insinuations about Barbara's troubled relationship with her husband. Barbara offers Colin a job helping her redecorate her home, but when Mark shows up, Colin withdraws, refuses to do any work, and finally leaves. When he returns home, he's had his head shaved. There is no resolution to the film, simply a succession of days that present commonplace problems, amusements, conversations, and arguments.
Filming locations in London included the areas of Chigwell, Woodford Green, and Trafalgar Square.[3] The Pollock family flat was filmed at Bryant Court on Whiston Road, LondonE2, while Barbara and John’s house was filmed at 10 Gwynne Park Avenue, Woodford Bridge, London IG8 8AB.[3] The unemployment office scene was filmed on Enfield Road[4] and the canal scene was filmed on Dunston Road, LondonE2.[3]
An incident occurred at the rehearsal space in a factory in Homerton, when Roth and Oldman were throwing a milk bottle around. Suddenly Roth threw it up and it hit a fluorescent lighting strip. Leigh saw "Gary's shaven head erupt into a thousand red blotches; in the film you can see the stitch marks." He rushed Oldman to hospital. "As I drove him there, all done up in his skinhead stuff, covered in blood, Gary said to me, 'For fuck's sake, tell 'em I'm an actor!' He could easily have lost his eyesight in the accident, and I do not know to this day what I would have done if that had happened."[5]
