70 Years of Black TV Drama in Britain
Writer: Stephen Bourne
Introduction | A Sort of Magic | 1960s – Enoch and Alf | 1970 and Beyond | Conclusion | Find Out More
Conclusion
After more than twenty years on our screens, BBC1's EastEnders is still drawing large audiences and winning Best Soap awards. The Mitchell, Fowler and Slater families appeal to young and old. And yet what makes this drama series so popular? I believe it is because soaps have saturated the air waves and, with the exception of soap-like medical and crime drama series like Casualty and The Bill, audiences are offered little else in the way of drama. Historically Black actors in soaps have been poorly served, especially in EastEnders. Today we have integrated casting in every type of TV drama, and there has been some improvement in the representation of Black characters, but most of the time they are 'colourless', existing in a vacuum without any cultural context.
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Angela Wynter as Yolande Duke in BBC1's EastEnders
BBC Photo Library
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Two of our most experienced Black actors, Rudolph Walker and Angela Wynter, are currently appearing in
EastEnders. After Rudolph left
Love Thy Neighbour he found serious dramatic work in TV series (
Black Silk) and plays (
Playboy of the West Indies). In 1987 Angela gave an acclaimed lead performance in Channel 4's drama
Elphida. But is the best we can offer them today are Walford's cartoonish caricatures? Since 2000, I haven't seen an original TV drama featuring a Black cast as good as Lennie James's
Storm Damage.
For too long TV dramas with Black actors in leading roles have been conspicuous by their absence from the schedules. So it was a surprise to find Shoot the Messenger, with a Black writer (Sharon Foster), Black director (Ngozi Onwurah) and a predominantly Black cast, headed brilliantly by David Oyelowo, on BBC2 on August 30 2006. This ambitious, thought-provoking, emotionally-charged study of a Black man's descent into hell raised some difficult issues. Sharon Foster was criticised in some quarters for 'washing the Black community's dirty linen in public', but Foster intended to make viewers feel uncomfortable. TV drama doesn't have to be cozy and comfortable all the time. After all, in the 1960s, director Ken Loach's TV dramas, such as Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home, were controversial because they dealt with taboo subjects like abortion and homelessness. They upset viewers and the establishment, but they made a difference, and are now considered TV classics. We need more TV dramas like Shoot the Messenger, that create debates.
In 1946, Pauline Henriques was the first Black actress to appear on British TV in a drama. In 1992, when she was interviewed for the TV documentary Black and White in Colour, she warned, 'There is a tremendous amount of talent amongst Black people. You see flashes of it sometimes. What is needed are more opportunities for full-length dramas with Black actors – not just one, but several. I do wish the TV companies would think about that. When the expression of talent is based around sit-coms and jokes, that talent is diluted and diminished.'
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