A clip from Brian Hill’s Drinking for England was shown to students as an example of the documentary form during the lecture. Although
admittedly, I did not necessarily understand the purpose of the scene (which can be forgiven considering we only saw a section of it), I confess that I was taken aback by the social actor’s “cool guy” singing, emphasised by his head bobbing and casual consumption of cigarettes and alcohol. Beginning the clip with a traditional interview scenario certainly deceived me of his sudden performance and though I don’t know much about the origins of the film, I cannot help but think of the performance as a satirical outlook into his (the actor’s) life.
