A radio station becomes ground zero for gentrification, drugs, and revolution. Thatcher's Britain burns.
Set in a commercial radio station in an enterprise zone called ‘Riverside’, Thin Air involved property development on a massive scale, the disruption and forced exodus of a local community, the stripping away of local authority powers, left-wing activism, designer drugs, media hacks.
Direction
Antonia Bird's razor-sharp social commentary, years before Priest.
Writing
Dense, angry, authentic dialogue about forgotten communities.
Production
Enterprise zone setting feels documentary-real and dystopian.
Director
Antonia Bird
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made for BBC's Screen Two strand, this is essentially a lost film—never commercially released, surviving only in archives. Bird would break through with Safe and Priest.
The 'enterprise zone' concept was real Thatcher policy: tax-free, regulation-light areas that devastated working-class communities. The film predicted the playbook.
GB
