‘Americans can’t do pubs – everything is wrong’

Actor-screenwriter Lennie James based his TV drama on the south London pubs that formed him

IAlmost every memory I have of pubs is a fond one

f you ask an expat out here in the States what they miss about the UK, they all say it is the way we take the p--- out of each other. That’s a skill honed in pubs. The atmosphere in a British pub can suddenly change with a too-loud laugh. You’re aware how quickly things can take on an edge of danger. That’s why I put a fictional pub on a London estate at the heart of Save Me [James’s Sky Atlantic drama].

I must have been about 14 or 15 when I first went to a pub. It was on Tooting High Road, near where I was at school in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the only one on that stretch of road that would allow underage boys in, so my rugby team all used to go in after practice. It was an old-school boozer, there was a corner where young lads went and sipped their first beer. I never liked beer so I’d have a blackcurrant and lemonade and be the butt of jokes.

When I was about 17 or 18 I was in a youth theatre group that rehearsed at the Lyric Theatre. We were a very diverse group and after rehearsals we used to go to a certain pub on Shepherd’s Bush Green. There was always an atmosphere. It was clear that we were not welcome. I look back on it and I’m proud of us for continuing to go there. It was a statement.

Besides that though, almost every memory I have of pubs is a fond one. I’m a season ticket holder for Tottenham. My weekend routine for 30 years would be to meet the guys at our pub, catch up, make predictions on the game, walk across the park to the stadium, then on our way back we’d meet at the pub and download it.

I have a theory that the stages of a British person’s life are all about pubs: reaching the age where you’re allowed to be served, then maturing enough to know when you’ve had enough, and finally the age when you don’t need it. That’s crucial to the British psyche and has been for centuries. I think Britain would be a fundamentally different place without it.

I live in LA now where there’s a couple of wannabe pubs, but they’re distinctly American. It’s too warm, the beer is too light, the smell is wrong, the food is wrong, there’s just a different air. As soon as lockdown has ended, I’ll be desperate to be back in that pub near the Tottenham ground with my mates, getting ready for a match.