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RELEVANT PROGRAMMES |
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RELATED EVENTS IN TV, FILM AND CULTURE |
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SOCIAL BACKGROUND |
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Song of Freedom
(Dir. J Elder Wills, 1936) Starring Paul Robeson and Elisabeth Welch
Opening of BBC Television Service
2nd November at Alexandra Palace. As part of the Variety Show at 3.30pm, Buck and Bubbles, African-American entertainers, perform a song and dance act |
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First appearance of a Black actor on British television
Robert Adams, a Gyanese actor, appeared in the long running series Theatre Parade: Scenes from Hassan. The following year Adams was in a television version of Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones
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The Proud Valley
(Dir. Pen Tennyson, 1940) Starring Paul Robeson |
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First appearance of a Black actor in Shakespeare on British Television
Robert Adams was cast as Prince of Morocco in The Merchant of Venice (transmitted 1 July 1947) |
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Windrush
Docks at Tilbury in Essex on 22 June 1948
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Pool of London (1950)
Film starring Earl Cameron
1954 Television Act
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A Man from the Sun BBC (1956)
Starring Earl Cameron, Errol John, Cy Grant and Sarah Morgan
Tonight BBC (1957-1960)
Cy Grant would sing the news in calypso
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Independent Television formed (1955)
Edric Connor Acting Agency
Set up in 1956 (later known as the Afro-Asian Caribbean Agency)
Emergency Ward 10 ITV (1957-1967)
The first long running medical drama on television
Black and White Minstrel Show BBC One (1958-1978)
Variety entertainment show with ‘blacked up’ male singers and dancers on Saturday teatime |
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Notting Hill Riots (1958)
The first post-war race riots to be taken seriously
Murder of Kelso Cochrane in Notting Hill (1959)
A young black man is murdered by a group of white youths in Notting Hill. His killers are never found
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First Black character appears in Coronation St (1963)
Thomas Baptiste appeared as a wrongfully sacked bus driver in Coronation Street (ITV)
First inter-racial kiss on TV in Emergency Ward 10 (1964)
Between a black surgeon Louise Mahler (Joan Hooley) and a white doctor Giles Farmer (Giles White)
Fable BBC One (1965)
Starring Thomas Baptiste, Barbara Assoon and Carmen Munroe |
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Coronation Street starts on ITV
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Sapphire
(Dir. Basil Dearden, 1959) Won British Academy Award for best British Film. Starring Earl Cameron, Harry Baird
Flame in the Streets
(Dir. Roy Ward Baker, 1961) Earl Cameron, Johnny Sekka
Campaign Against Racial Discrimation Founded (1965)
A Taste of Honey
(1961) Starring Paul Danquah
Till Death Us Do Part (1965-68)
Sitcom featuring racist Alf Garnett
Caribbean Artists’ Movement
(1966-1972)
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Commonwealth Immigrants Act
(1962) |
Race Relations Bill
(1965)
National Front
A white nationalist organisation founded in 1967 |
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Fable BBC One (1965)
Starring Thomas Baptiste, Barbara Assoon, Carmen Munroe and Earl Cameron |
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Campaign Against Racial Discrimation
founded (1965)
Till Death Us Do Part (1965-68)
Sitcom featuring racist Alf Garnett
Caribbean Artists’ Movement (1966-1972)
Campaign Against Racial Discrimation
deliver huge petition against Black and White Minstrel
Death May Be Your Santa Claus
dir. Frankie Dymon 1969
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Enoch Powell
makes anti-immigration ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in 1968 |
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Love Thy Neighbour ITV: Thames Television (1972-1976)
Sitcom starring Rudolph Walker and Nina Baden-Semper |
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Trevor McDonald
is Britain’s first black newsreader on ITV (1973)
Derek Griffiths
is the first black children’s programme presenter in 1971 (Play School BBC One)
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The Fosters ITV: LWT (1976-1977)
First all Black cast sitcom with Norman Beaton, Lenny Henry and Isabelle Lucas
Black Christmas BBC Two (1977)
Starring Norman Beaton and Carmen Munroe
Mixed Blessings ITV: LWT (1978- 1980)
Starring Gregory Munroe, Carmen Munroe, Muriel Odunton
Empire Road BBC One (1978- 1979)
Drama series set in Britain’s ethnic minority communities |
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Actors’ union Equity
form Coloured Artists’ Committee (1975)
Lenny Henry
is the first black performer on the Black and White Minstrel Show (1975 BBC One)
Pressure (1975)
Polemic film directed by Horace Ove, starring Herbert Norville
Roots (1977)
13-part drama series about the slave trade shown in US
Black Joy (dir. Anthony Simmons, 1977)
Trevor Thomas, Paul J. Medford, Norman Beaton
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Race Relations Act (1976)
National Front ‘anti-black’
election campaign (1979) |
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Wolcott ITV (1981)
First cop drama with Black lead policeman, starring George Harris |
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Babylon (dir. Franco Rosso, 1980)
Brinsley Forde, Trevor Laird, Brian Bovell, Victor Romero Evans
Burning an Illusion (dir. Menelik Shabazz, 1981)
Cassie McFarlane, Trevor Laird, Victor Romero Evans, Angela Wynter , Corinne Skinner-Carter
Black People’s Day of Action
(1981)
International Fair
of Radical, Black and Third World Books (1982-1995)
Channel 4
launched (1982)
The Lenny Henry Show (BBC One)
is the first comedy to star a male black performer (1984)
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New Cross Massacre (1981)
Brixton Riots (1981)
Publication of Lord Scarman’s
report on the Brixton Riots (1983)
Riots in Toxteth
(Liverpool), Tottenham and Southall (1984) |
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Black Silk BBC One (1985)
Series about Black lawyers, starring Rudolph Walker, Mona Hammond
Playing Away Channel 4 (1986)
Directed: Horace Ove, written: Caryl Phillips, starring: Norman Beaton
Desmonds Channel 4 (1988-1994)
Sit-com set in SE London starring Norman Beaton, Carmen Munroe |
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EastEnders begins on BBC One
(1985)
Mona Lisa (1985)
Cathy Tyson
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Broadwater Farm Riots
1985
Four Black MPs elected
Bernie Grant, Keith Vaz, Diane Abbott and Paul Boateng (1987) |
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When Love Dies Channel 4 (1990)
Directed by Horace Ove and starring Brian Bovell
Black Poppies BBC Two (1992)
Secrets and Lies Channel 4 (1996)
Starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste, the first Black British actor to receive an Oscar nomination |
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Young Soul Rebels (dir. Isaac Julien, 1991)
Valentine Nonyela; Mo Sesay; Sophie Okonedo
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Murder of Stephen Lawrence,
a racist attack by white young men (1993)
Paul Ince
becomes first black footballer to Captain England team (1993) |
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The Final Passage Channel 4 (1996)
Written by Caryl Phillips, starring Natasha Williams
A Respectable Trade BBC One (1998)
Drama on the slave trade, starring Ariyon Bakare
The Death of Stephen Lawrence
ITV (1999) Docu-drama
Storm Damage BBC Two (2000)
Written by Lennie James and starring Ashley Walters |
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Channel 5 Starts (1997)
The Windrush Season BBC Two
1998
Baby Mother (Julian Henriques, 1998)
Angela Lauren Smith, Caroline Chikezie, Jocelyn Jee Esien, Will Johnson, Don Warrington, Corinne Skinner-Carter
Rage (dir. Newton Aduaka, 1999)
Fraser Ayres, Shaun Parker |
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Macpherson Report (1999)
Report on the murder of Stephen Lawrence in which Metropolitan Police are described as ‘institutionally racist’
Nail Bomber (1999)
Bombs placed in Brixton, Brick Lane and |
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Baby Father BBC (2002)
Starring Don Gilet, David Harewood, Fraser James, Will Johnson
Elmina’s Kitchen BBC (2003)
Written by Kwame Kwei-Armah, starring George Harris, Paterson Joseph |
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Film Council established (2000) Digital Television (2001)
BBC launches new channels (including BBC Three, BBC Four and News 24) and Channel 4 launches E4
History of Black actors in popular British film and television from 1890s to 1990s: Black in the British Frame: The Black Experience in British Film and Television.
Stephen Bourne (2nd edition, Continuum, 2001.)
Bullet Boy (dir. Saul Dibb, 2004)
Ashley Walters, Luke Fraser
Hotel Rwanda (dir. Terry George, 2004) Co-produced British
Sophie Okonedo |
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Muder of ten-year-old
Damilola Taylor in Peckham (2000)
Murder of teenagers
Charlene Ellis and Letitia Shakespeare in a drive-by shooting (2003) |
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Shooting the Messenger BBC (2006)
Written by Sharon Fisher and starring David Oyelowo
Dr Who Season Three (2007)
Freema Agyeman joins series as companion Martha Jones (BBC One) |
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Kidulthood (dir. Menhaj Huda, 2006)
Written by Noel Clarke Aml Ammen, Red Madrell, Noel Clarke
Little Miss Jocelyn BBC Three (2006)
Jocelyn Jee Esien first female black performer to headline own comedy show on British TV
Bicentenary of the Abolition
of the Slave Trade (2007) |
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High number of teenagers
murdered in urban areas in gang-related incidents (2007) |
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