I can't give this a 10, if only because I had a strong sense of wanting a story of some kind that I could follow along. I'm a writer and I understand plots and how they are put together so something like No Surrender throws me off. After a while I realised that this film is just made to be enjoyed as a slice of the typical madness that is a constant undercurrent of Liverpool even if you don't notice it at any particular moment. The characters of the Orange Lodge were no more zany than the auntie of one of my mates in Liverpool back in the 70s. When I turned up wearing orange trousers one day, she assumed that I was going to take part in an Orange Lodge march. It's all in there. Alan Bleasdale has crammed every classic Liverpool stereotype into this. The has-been but still dangerous IRA man, wanted by Special Branch. The feral kids on the estate. Just sit back and enjoy.
Review of No Surrender
