Bradford Riots

On July 7th 2001 the Manningham area of Bradford experienced what has been described as the worst rioting in mainland Britain for 20 years. The riots erupted after weeks of tension fomented by the activities and threats of the National Front and the BNP.

Written by Neil Biswas, Bradford Riots tells the story of that night of vicious rioting from the perspective of a group of young Asian men whose lives, families and community have been defined and decimated by these events.

The scripts are based on a year of intense first-hand research within Bradford's Pakistani community. Biswas looks at this community from the inside to see how it lived before mass violence blew up its streets.

Bradford Riots takes individual stories and seeks to explore why this violence happened, who was to blame and how the sentencing of a generation of young Asian men took place even though the majority handed themselves in to the police, pleaded guilty and had no relevant previous convictions.