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Jojo Stardust 2

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You a proper little skinhead, then yeah?
~ Andrew Gascoigne to Shaun.
What... What do you think makes a bad dad?
~ Andrew Gascoigne to Milky.
Don't f-cking smile at me, 'cos I'll wipe the f-cking smile off your f-cking face!
~ Andrew Gascoigne threatening Milky.
You! Don't you f-cking ever- 'stomach punch' F-cking... Ever. Ever undermine me again infront of my f-cking troops!
~ Andrew to Pukey for nullifying him.

Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne is the main antagonist of This is England, and a minor supporting character in This is England '86 and 88.

He was portrayed by Stephen Graham, who also portrayed Gruagach in the 2019 film adaptation of Hellboy, Fulvio in Inkheart, Jacob Marley in the 2019 TV miniseries version of A Christmas Carol, and Al Capone in Boardwalk Empire.

Personality[]

Combo is an angry, violent bigot who hates non-white immigrants. However, he shows qualities of a good man standing up for his friends when the situation arises. After the first film, he appears to regret his previous actions and seeks redemption.

History[]

Little is known of Combo's life before the first movie. But according to the dialogue throughout the films, when Combo was at the age of seventeen, he attempted to fight Lol's abusive father, Mick, for molesting her, though Mick beat Combo severely and left him in the street for dead. Lol found Combo and was able to take him to a hospital. At some point, Combo and Lol got drunk and had a one-night stand, Combo remained in love with Lol from then on. Later on, in 1980, Combo and Woody got into trouble for unknown reasons and ended up serving a three-year prison sentence. However, he never appeared to show any type of grudge against Woody for this. While in prison, Combo became friends with a fellow convict, Banjo, and the two became close friends afterward, running their block after dealing with an abusive black prisoner who kept stealing Combo's desert, this was where Combo's racist and white nationalist views slowly developed.

Upon his release in 1983, Combo (Along with Banjo) returned to Woody and the gang at a party and is greeted warmly. Here, Combo meets Shaun, a new young member of the skinhead group. However, tension begins when Combo talks about the dessert-stealing black prisoner in front of Milky (Woody insinuates that Combo was slightly racist even before his sentence). The next morning, Combo invites the gang to his flat and attempts to take control of the gang be giving them a long speech about immigration and the government's decision to hold the Falklands War, by this point Shaun becomes angered and attempts to strike Combo since his father died in the war. Combo takes advantage of this and brainwashes him into thinking that fighting against immigration will, in turn, be honoring his father's memory. Combo even manages to set several members of the gang against Woody by reminding them of how many years he would racially abuse Milky (Something he appears to regret) and how nobody would stand up for him. The only members who fall for his speech are Shaun, Gadget, Pukey, and Meggy, while Milky for short time becomes distant towards Woody but eventually joins Woody instead.

Combo takes the group to a National Front meeting and they sign up for the political party, but on the way back, Pukey expresses doubts towards over the group's racial intentions. Fueled by ire and vengeance, Combo proceeds to threaten him violently and jettisoning him, leading back to Woody's group. Combo and the group then engage in bigoted racial antagonisms, such as spraying racial remarks on walls with graffiti, threatening Indian boys playing football, and robbing Mr. Sandhu, a Pakistani shopkeeper who previously banned Shaun from his shop. Combo bonds with Shaun during this, who Combo sees as a father figure.

However, things turn for the worse when Combo tries to express his feelings towards Lol. Lol, being angry towards Combo for hurting Woody's feelings, rejects him and tells him that their one-night stand was the worst night of her entire life. Heartbroken, Combo approaches Milky and purchases cannabis off him and invites him to his flat, in an attempt to forsake his racist ways. While intoxicated, Combo and Milky bond, but Combo grows jealous of Milky's happy life and racially abuses him in an attempt to get him to fight. Milky merely smiles cheekily at Combo, who loses his temper and in revenge psychotically beats Milky unconscious over Shaun's protests. Combo angrily throws Shaun out of his flat for defending Milky and proceeds to smash a bottle over the back of Banjo's head who claims he wants to torture Milky as well. Combo furiously orders Banjo and Meggy out as he tends to Milky, only to see that he is apparently dead. Combo weeps in shame as Shaun comes back inside the flat and convinces Combo to get Milky to a hospital.

Ashamed of his actions, he leaves town. Three years later, in 1986, Combo arrives at Shaun's house unexpectedly one night, drunk and bloodied, as he collapses on his living room floor. Later in the morning, Combo tells Shaun that he has returned because his mother is dying. Shaun and Smell take him to his mother's house but see that she has already died. Combo takes a moment to pay his respects to his mother, and embraces Shaun as a friend, thanking him.

Later on, Combo decides to visit Lol at her house. He rings the doorbell several times, but there is no answer, so he looks through the living room window and sees Lol sobbing alone with Mick lying dead on the floor. Combo alters the scene to make it look like he fought and killed Mick in self-defense by smearing his fingerprints all over the hammer Lol used to kill Mick, and injuring himself with Mick's hand. Subsequently, Combo is sent back to prison, this time for manslaughter, though with a clear conscience.

Two years later, Combo is visited at the prison by Lol. Lol, realizing that Combo was the only one truly there for her all her life. She visits Combo to apologize for what she told him in 1983 and admits that she loves him (the exact nature of this love is unrevealed). During the visit, Combo asks about Woody and Milky and is shown a photograph of Lol's baby daughter Lisa (the result of an affair with Milky). Combo appears to be genuinely happy for Lol and doesn't make any racial remarks, hinting he may have abandoned his old racist ways. Combo also tells Lol that he is changing his life for the better and continuing his education with the GCEs. In his last scenes, he is seen spending Christmas alone in his cell, eating his lunch while studying.

With his parole hearing imminent, Combo now 39, contacts Lol and asks her for a temporary place to stay, which Lol and Woody agree to out of gratitude for Combo taking the rap for Lol. After a special lunch attended by their nearest and dearest, they reveal the truth behind Mick's murder, along with the news that Combo would be moving in with them upon his release. Though most believe that Combo has changed for the better, Milky remains unconvinced and expresses anger at Woody and Lol's decision, believing he has not changed. Though Milky eventually accepts their decision, he refuses to allow Lisa to share the same roof as Combo.

Combo moves in with Woody and Lol, sharing a tearful embrace with Woody and showing his guilt for what he has done to Milky (as this is the first time Combo and Woody have seen each other after the former beat Milky) and symbolising Woody's forgiveness. He smokes and drinks with them, and openly inquires about Lisa, whom they say is spending time with Milky, though Combo still appears to believe that Milky does not want Lisa near him.

Combo eventually moves out of Woody and Lol's place and manages to get a job with Helen (Lol's nurse), as a sports coach for disabled teenagers, changing his life for the better. On his first day, however, during his lunch break, he runs into Milky who confronts him about the past. Milky asks to discuss matters with Combo over a "brew", to which Combo agrees, although Combo senses something is wrong when Milky drives him to a cafe far away from where they set off. Combo is deeply apologetic for his previous behavior and wishes to earn Milky's forgiveness. Their conversation is cut short when some of Milky's relatives menacingly enter the cafe. He explains that whilst he was in the hospital, his family swore to avenge the beating he had received from Combo. Accepting his fate, Combo states that he forgives Milky, and hopes one day Milky can forgive him. He then accompanies the men into their van and they drive him to an abandoned warehouse where they park and turn up the radio. However, instead of beating him up as he expected, the men hand Combo over to two white hitmen whom Combo appears to recognise. He struggles and begs them to spare his life. The two men carry Combo, struggling and screaming for help, up the stairs into a room and the door is closed. He is not seen again.

Two months later, at Woody and Lol's wedding, Milky is wracked with guilt over his part in Combo's fate. In Woody's speech, he expresses his sadness in not having Combo as his best man as he has disappeared and left no trace of where he has gone. Lol has noticed Milky's strange mood throughout the day and enquires whether he has seen or heard anything of Combo, saying that it was very uncharacteristic of him to vanish without a word. Milky senses that she suspects he has played a part in Combo's disappearance and she asks him to look her straight in the eye and deny having anything to do with Combo's disappearance. Just as he is about to respond, Gadget and Shaun enter the room and the conversation between them dissolves.

The fate of Combo has not yet been confirmed/revealed by Meadows or Thorne, but the look of guilt on Milky's face at the wedding, which is set two months after the incident, leaves the viewer to assume the worst, and that Combo suffered a painful death and was buried at sea.

Characterization[]

Early on in the film and series even though he would stand up for his friends if the situation arose, Combo is shown as a psychopathic racist, holding staunch opinions regarding immigration and being prone to violent outbursts of anger. Following his racist behaviour and near murder of Milky, Combo seems to be genuinely repentant of his actions and does his best to become a better man. We do not actually know if he died or not but is set up by Milky to be taken by some men who he appears to know. The last we see of him is him screaming that he does not want to die as he is carried through a door in a derelict building.

Villainous acts[]

  • At Gadget's house, Combo started a racial conversation about his experience in prison and called the black inmate who abused him and Banjo a very obsence racial word which offended Black Milky. While Combo directly apologized to Milky for saying that, he continues his racial comments sooner by making fun of the way the inmate ate and spoke, offending almost everyone in the entire room while he made some of the boys laugh with him.
  • Combo in the cafe, whacked young Shaun at the back of the head (possibly for fun) which caused the boy to scowl at him before leaving with Banjo.
  • At his flat, Combo, foul-mouthed, angrily explained to the rest of the gang his hatred towards immagrants alongside racially calling Pakistani immagrants an obscene word and had the dream and will to dispose all migrated people out of England, blaming them for why "three and a half million of them can't find work, because they are taking them all".
  • Combo takes his group to a National Front meeting where they become members of the political party. On the way back, Pukey expressed his doubts over the group's racist views, prompting Combo to explode in anger, slam the breaks of the car, grab and throw him out, gets physical with him by punching him the stomach and pressing his thumb at the back of his neck and violently threaten him and tell him to "Fuck off back to Woody's", calls him a queer and sadistically drives off and happily flips him off while driving away.
  • Combo and the others engage in racially antagonistic acts, such as spraying racist remarks on walls and threatening Asian boys playing football. When Combo threatens he ever sees them on the streets again, he tells them to go home where their mum's cooking curry.
  • When Shaun enters the Newspaper shop of Mr. Sandhu, a Pakistani shopkeeper who banned the former from his place for his bad behavior, he tells him to give him 100 fags, two bottles of wine, a bottle of whiskey, and 10 cans of lager, which Sandhu declined to do so and told him to leave, but Shaun started calling Sandhu a "Paki bastard". Once Sandhu was about to throw the naughty boy out of his shop, Combo threatened to slay Sandhu with a sword and the rest of the gang start robbing his shop and Combo also aggressivley called Sandhu racial remarks to his race, claimed that they "own his shop now and will be back whenever they want" before leaving.
  • Growing jealous of Milky's happy family life, Combo attempts to provoke him into fighting. Milky merely smiles cheekily at Combo, Combo loses his temper. Enraged, he beats Milky unconscious. Combo angrily threw Shaun out of his flat for defending Milky then tells Meggy that he was winding him up. Combo turns his rage on Banjo, throwing a bottle at him and Meggy. After Combo violently beats Banjo, Combo furiously orders both Banjo and Meggy out of his flat. Despite this, Combo was horrified at what he has done, Combo turns to Milky, who is seemingly dead. When Shaun is shown crying, he comes back into the room, but a remorseful Combo is weeping in shame. He manages to convince him to stop crying and help get Milky to the hospital.

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