Lenny Henry’s Caribbean Britain, BBC2 (evaluation) – Repeating Islands


[Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention.] Ed Energy (iNews) critiques Lenny Henry’s Caribbean Britain in “Lenny Henry’s Caribbean Britain, BBC2: The story of a blended tradition with a private twist.”

The following time we see Sir Lenny Henry on display screen, it is going to be as a proto-hobbit in Amazon’s megabucks Lord of the Rings prequel. For anybody raised on Center Earth and on Henry’s comedy, it appears like a match made in TV heaven. Henry is certain to carry much-needed levity to the fantastical however – let’s be sincere – portentous world of elves, Balrogs and chattering bushes.

But at the same time as most Tolkien followers celebrated the casting information, it was unimaginable to disregard the ugly, knuckle-dragging backlash on social media. The concept of a non-white hobbit whipped many on the web into incandescent fury.

They might settle for actors with pointy ears and monstrously bushy ft – offered these ears and ft had been a sure pores and skin color. And it was in that context that the weighty and thought-provoking Lenny Henry’s Caribbean Britain made its well timed arrival.

The 63-year-old has at all times had a critical facet, having performed Othello on stage and a baddy in Physician Who. And within the first of Caribbean Britain’s riveting two feature-length episodes, he was in full-ahead documentarian mode. This was a deep dive into the pivotal position performed by the Caribbean neighborhood in British cultural life in all its dizzying sides.

He didn’t pull his punches in laying naked the racism confronted by the Windrush era in search of a greater life within the UK. Nonetheless, the movie, that includes interviews with Trevor Nelson, Billy Ocean, Baroness Benjamin, Judi Love and others, doubled as a celebration of the contribution of migrants to the humanities.

Henry drew a connection between grime music and calypso, the chatty Caribbean musical fashion these first immigrants had delivered to their new residence. “There’s a relationship between the artist and the viewers – it’s conversational,” mentioned Mykaell Riley, director for the black music analysis unit at Westminster College. “We are able to join that social commentary delivered with a way of humour all the way in which again to calypso.” [. . .]

For full evaluation, see https://inews.co.uk/tradition/tv/lenny-henrys-caribbean-britain-bbc2-review-1701182

Additionally see “Lenny Henry’s Caribbean Britain, evaluation: how Windrush modified the nation,
The comic and actor fronted an informative and entertaining documentary about lesser-known black champions of arts and tradition”
Anita Singh, The Telegraph, June 22, 2022
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/television/0/lenny-henrys-caribbean-britain-review-how-windrush-changed-country

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTgytHff5Ic



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