Three timeskipped miniseries were spun off from the film This Is England for Channel 4. This is England '86 takes place three years later, with Shaun making amends and rejoining the skinheads, Lol's father returning and Combo's release. This is England '88 features Shaun in college and Lol raising a child. This is England '90 involves rave culture and the 1990 FIFA World Cup.
The series provides examples of:
- Abusive Parents:
- Lol's father is sexually abusive.
- Harvey's father is shown briefly to be physically abusive.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Gadget has an long-standing unrequited crush on Kelly that's never quite resolved.
- Ascended Extra:
- Harvey, who had a very brief appearance in the film as a bully at Shaun's school, is now a fully-fledged member of the gang, and even takes Woody's place as the leader of the gang by the time of '90.
- Flip, the hilarious leader of the biker gang in '86, had a "blink-and-you-miss-it" moment in the film as the boy who mocked Shaun's trousers outside Mister Sandhu's shop. In '90 he is more prominently featured in the cast, along with Higgy.
- Trudy had a throwaway appearance as a shoe shopkeeper in a single scene of the film, then returns in the miniseries with a significantly expanded role, in which it's revealed that the shoe shop is just one of her many current… *ahem* …enterprises.
- Back for the Finale: Meggy, Banjo, Trudy, Kes, and Pob all make brief silent cameos in the final episode of '90.
- British Brevity: Four episodes in the first miniseries, three in the second, and four in the third.
- Character Focus: Kelly receives a lot more focus in '90.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Meggy disappears in between the first two miniseries, though he appears at the wedding party at the end of '90.
- Contrived Coincidence: Gadget and Kel have a wheelchair race in the hospital, not following any particular route, and it just so happens that the race reaches its climax in the exact same place where Lol and Kel's mum has just come in at the exact same time.
- Daddy's Girl: Played for Drama with Kelly, as her father raped her sister and best friend.
- A Day in the Limelight: Gives Lol, Woody, and Milky a lot more scrutiny.
- Face–Heel Turn: Milky in the '86 and '90 miniseries. In '86, he and Lol have an affair, resulting in a daughter, and a period of estrangement with Woody. In '90, it is revealed that he allowed his family to arrange Combo's murder, though deeply regrets it when his relatives carry on with their plans from his 1983 hospitalization. While Milky was one of the more likable characters in the film, his actions in '86 and '90 caused a shift in fan opinion toward the character.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: During Combo and Milky's conversation about the night Combo beat Milky unconscious, Combo admits that he beat him up because he felt envious of Milky having a happier home life than him. Milky instead shames him for this because Combo still hospitalized him and traumatised Milky's kids by making them think he was going to die. After this, Combo promises to atone for his racist attack, but is presumably assassinated before he gets the chance.
- Hard-Drinking Party Girl: Kelly, especially in '90.
- Heel–Face Turn:
- Aside from being an Ascended Extra, film bully Harvey becomes part of the main gang in the miniseries, and is somehow friends with Shaun. Though his bullying ways are not completely gone, as his argument with Gadget in '90 shows.
- Banjo changes from fearsome racist to one of the nicest members of the gang in the miniseries, quite possibly a result of Combo's leaving town making him see the light.
- Flip and Higgy in '90, though to a lesser extent.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Four examples: Woody and Milky, Gadget and Harvey, Meggy and Banjo, and Flip and Higgy.
- Large Ham: Flip to a tee.
- Lethally Stupid: Flip bringing his goons to take "revenge" on Shaun for "ruining" his potential relationship with Gemma, not realizing that Shaun is friends with former skinheads such as Woody, Milky, and Banjo. Flip fails to see that Woody's gang are not afraid of him and his goons (especially when Woody mocks Flip's gang and refers to their motorbikes as hairdryers), yet Flip still threatens Woody's gang to hand over Shaun to them, which obviously doesn't end well. The only reason why Flip manages to get out safely is probably because the police force arrive on the scene soon after the fight breaks out and the two gangs stop fighting before Milky reaches Flip and beat him up.
- Nice Girl/The Quiet One: Trev is a shy, quiet member of the gang, which makes her rape by Mick all the more horrific.
- Plucky Comic Relief/Those Two Guys: Flip and Higgy in '90 serve as a comic relief duo, and are notably absent from the third episode.
- Rape as Backstory: Lol, by her father.
- Rape as Drama: Both Lol and Trev are raped by Mick.
- Sleeps with Everyone but You: Harvey says this pretty much verbatim about Kelly whilst arguing with Gadget — and it's pretty much true.
- Taking the Heat: Combo takes the blame for Lol for the murder of her father, Mick.
- Time Skip: Inverted with '86, as it's set three years after the film, but the gap of time between filming the two was significantly longer! However, '86 was followed by '88, which as the name suggests is set two years later, but filmed and aired one year later. This looks to be repeated with '90.
- Unlucky Childhood Friend: Milky is revealed to be Lol's... 'til he gets lucky. He breaks it off when he realises Lol and Woody are the Official Couple.
