England 'Til I Die: a documentary worth watchingJamie Roberts new Channel 4 documentary, England 'Til I Die (@Hoyo Films), follows Liam Tomsett, a Sussex man drawn into far-right anti-immigration activism in his... Read more
England 'Til I Die: a documentary worth watching
Jamie Roberts new Channel 4 documentary, England 'Til I Die (@Hoyo Films), follows Liam Tomsett, a Sussex man drawn into far-right anti-immigration activism in his home town of Crowborough. The film centres on the tension that has built up around a disused army camp turned asylum accommodation centre, and on Tomsett's role in blocking contractors and confronting local officials. A particularly hard scene shows Green councillor Rachel Millward heckled at a council meeting and then followed to her car by Tomsett as she cries. Roberts, known for earlier work including Angry, White and Proud, gives his subject space to explain himself without ever letting him off the hook, and the result is a film that says as much about the state of the country in 2026 as it does about one man's radicalisation.
What stayed with us most was how unsettling it was to watch groups of aggressive men verbally harassing and following people, including women, on the street, all while claiming their cause is about protecting women and children. That contradiction sits at the heart of the film and is never really addressed by the men themselves. It points to something the documentary only touches on in passing but which feels like the real story: this behaviour has far less to do with genuine concern for safety and far more to do with a need to dominate and control public space.
That contradiction traces back to something older and more familiar: toxic masculinity, and the primal drive for dominance and status it can produce when left unexamined. One aside in the film, about football and match-day culture, was quietly one of the most revealing moments. It hints at how the aggressive, tribal rhetoric that can surround football has merged with the ease of access to misinformation and racist propaganda online, and how that combination is now spilling out of stadiums and comment sections and onto the streets of towns like Crowborough. Watched that way, the documentary is less about one man's journey into extremism and more a warning about how ordinary, everyday male aggression is being radicalised at scale.
England 'Til I Die is available on 40D now
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/england-til-i-die
Jamie Roberts new Channel 4 documentary, England 'Til I Die (@Hoyo Films), follows Liam Tomsett, a Sussex man drawn into far-right anti-immigration activism in his home town of Crowborough. The film centres on the tension that has built up around a disused army camp turned asylum accommodation centre, and on Tomsett's role in blocking contractors and confronting local officials. A particularly hard scene shows Green councillor Rachel Millward heckled at a council meeting and then followed to her car by Tomsett as she cries. Roberts, known for earlier work including Angry, White and Proud, gives his subject space to explain himself without ever letting him off the hook, and the result is a film that says as much about the state of the country in 2026 as it does about one man's radicalisation.
What stayed with us most was how unsettling it was to watch groups of aggressive men verbally harassing and following people, including women, on the street, all while claiming their cause is about protecting women and children. That contradiction sits at the heart of the film and is never really addressed by the men themselves. It points to something the documentary only touches on in passing but which feels like the real story: this behaviour has far less to do with genuine concern for safety and far more to do with a need to dominate and control public space.
That contradiction traces back to something older and more familiar: toxic masculinity, and the primal drive for dominance and status it can produce when left unexamined. One aside in the film, about football and match-day culture, was quietly one of the most revealing moments. It hints at how the aggressive, tribal rhetoric that can surround football has merged with the ease of access to misinformation and racist propaganda online, and how that combination is now spilling out of stadiums and comment sections and onto the streets of towns like Crowborough. Watched that way, the documentary is less about one man's journey into extremism and more a warning about how ordinary, everyday male aggression is being radicalised at scale.
England 'Til I Die is available on 40D now
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/england-til-i-die
