Christianity: A History

Watch exclusive interviews with Robert Beckford

Dr Robert Beckford is an educator, author and award-winning broadcaster. After teaching adult literacy at Bournville College in Birmingham in the early 1990s, he became the first ever tutor in Black Theology at Queens College, Birmingham (1992-98) where he taught trainee priests and ministers for the Anglican and Methodist churches.

He began teaching at the University of Birmingham in 1999, working first as a Research Fellow with black offenders at Birmingham Prison and then moving to the faculty as the first Lecturer in Black Theology in 2001. He spent two years as the Reader in Black Theology and Popular Culture at Oxford Brookes University, and is currently an associate lecturer at Cambridge University.

Breaking new ground
Robert Beckford is the author of five academic texts in the field of religion, culture and politics. These include: Dread and Pentecostal (2002), a study of Rastafari and Pentecostalism; God and the Gangs (2004) on gang culture in Birmingham; and Jesus Dub (2006), a theology of reggae-dub. His current research explores the role of documentary film as resistance to the bewitchment of black British Christianity by a-politicism and anti-intellectualism, Documentary as Exorcism (Continuum, 2010).

A firm believer in teaching for social change, Robert has retained a commitment to teaching outside of traditional contexts, including community groups, care homes and male prisons. His organic approach to intellectual matters led him into broadcasting in 1999.

Into the mainstream
Robert Beckford has presented a plethora of documentaries on radio and television and made his debut in Trevor Phillip’s series, Britain’s Slave Past. He moved on to work on number of programmes with BBC4 including Ebony Towers (2001), presented his first mainstream feature length documentary, Blood and Fire (2002) on the story of Jamaican Independence for BBC2, and earned a BAFTA for Test of Time (2002), a 6-part series for BBC Religion. He began working with Channel 4 in 2003 and developed a dynamic partnership with commissioning editor, Aaqil Ahmed.

Robert has averaged an impressive two films per year with Channel 4, becoming a regular fixture on Christmas Day and Easter Sunday, at the same time as presenting a weekly BBC West Midlands Radio Show in Birmingham 2006 - 07. His credits include God is Black (2004), Empire Pays Back (2005), The Secret Family of Jesus (2006), The Great Africa Scandal (2007), The Secrets of the 12 Disciples (2008), The Nativity Decoded (2008) and The Dark Ages – an episode of Christianity: A History (2009).

Changing perceptions
His films for Channel 4 have earned him a ‘controversial’ label which he interprets as, ‘a cultural field that can only locate black men as athletes, entertainers or problematic’.

Robert has worked to develop talent within the African and African Caribbean community, including Andy Akinwolere (Blue Peter) and jazz artist Soweto Kinch. He is currently collaborating with playwright and actor, Kwame Kwei-Armah on a gritty but redemptive urban TV drama series.