Trevor is a fictional character from the film Made in Britain, set in Britain and born in 1966. He is presented as a 16-year-old skinhead and punk who is angry, isolated and openly hostile to other people. He is highly intelligent and articulate, but uses those qualities to manipulate others and to justify his behaviour.

Character background

Trevor grows up with working-class parents and attends public school, where he bullies other children, including his younger brother Patrick. At 13, he drops out and turns to life on the streets, joining skinhead and punk circles. He rejects school and conventional work, instead learning to shoplift and steal cars. He moves between groups of hooligans and then increasingly acts alone.

He is repeatedly arrested and convicted for offences including car theft, burglary, breaking and entering, destruction of property and other crimes. Because of his age, he is given leniency and placed with a social worker rather than sent to juvenile detention. Later, after another conviction, he is taken to an assessment centre to be evaluated before punishment is decided.

Behaviour and beliefs

Trevor is depicted as foul-mouthed, stubborn and anti-social, with a strong tendency to lash out violently when frustrated. He sees little value in education or employment and spends much of his time stealing, smoking and sniffing glue in stolen cars. He cannot form ordinary relationships, but he can be persuasive and calculating when it suits him.

The character is marked by racial hatred and scapegoating. He blames minorities for the problems he sees in Britain and attacks members of immigrant communities. In the assessment centre, he exploits his black roommate, Errol, as an accomplice in further crimes. He also humiliates the centre by escaping, stealing keys, urinating on files, stealing a minibus, smashing windows and deliberately crashing a vehicle into a police car before escaping on foot.

Appearance

Trevor is described as short, slight and still boyish in appearance, despite his aggressive manner. He has pale skin, hazel or greenish-hazel eyes, and usually shaves his hair, though his natural hair colour is dark strawberry blonde. He is heavily tattooed, including a swastika between his eyebrows, a scorpion on his neck, a serpent on one forearm, a dragon on the other, and his own name tattooed on the back of his neck.

Characterisation

He is portrayed as a teenager whose intelligence, bitterness and violence make him seem older than he is, while his immaturity remains visible beneath the hardness. His story centres on crime, alienation and self-destruction, with repeated chances to change his life going unused.