2 Shows, 2 Movies, 2 Books…In Honour of (British) Black History Month

It is truly a travesty that Black history is relegated to a single month per year whilst most of the History curriculum for Primary and Secondary education is predominated by White history but I won’t get into all that; at least here in the UK we’re given a month with 31 days in comparison to our American brethren (that’s a gender neutral term to me) are given the shortest month of the year.
In honour of (British) Black History Month, I’m here to offer you recommendations of shows, films and books—2 of each, as per the title of this series—that showcase Black British people and their culture. There are great shows, books etc. that look to teach the audience about the history of Black people in Britain and/or to educate people on anti-black racism (think the likes of ‘Black and British: A Forgotten History’ and ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race’) and I think these are important pieces that should be watched/read by all, Black people and non-Black people who are still committed to being better allies outside of #BLM trending alike, but if you want those types of recommendations a simple Google search will yield lots of results for you. The following recommendations instead look to showcase ordinary Black British people and their everyday lives and whilst issues of anti-blackness may be plot points in the things I’m going to recommend they’re not the main focal point of them, just as anti-blackness is a part of the everyday lives of all of us but is not our main driving force in life.

Shows: ‘Chewing Gum’ and ‘Timewasters’

Chewing Gum— Before taking the world of Television by storm this year with the bold HBO/BBC show ‘I May Destroy You’ that was a personal portrait of trauma and recovery, Michaela Coel wow-ed British audiences with ‘Chewing Gum’. Originally a one-woman stage show that was part-inspired by Michaela’s own experiences of coming into her sexuality after growing up as a devout Christian in the Pentecostal church, the show was adapted into a comedy series which originally aired on E4 in 2015. The series manages to touch on heady topics and issues such as the Black Church, grappling with faith and coming into one’s self but it’s all done in a light-hearted manner that offers laughs as much as it offers cringe-inducing, gross-out moments. Where similar comedies would explore such issues through a pessimistic/misanthropic lens, ‘Chewing Gum’ is filled with boundless joy and energy with Tracey striving on to the next misadventure with renewed glee even after another one of her failed attempts to have sex goes awry. The show also does something rare in portraying life on a London Council estate that’s not related to crime in any way, instead it just shows ordinary people which is important as it doesn’t feed into the criminalisation of working class people some series tend to fall into the pitfall of doing.

Timewasters— As a Black person, a Black woman no less, if someone were to ask me the old age ice-breaker question of which historic time period I’d travel back to if I could time travel my answer would be quick and affirmative; I would never travel back in time. So the premise of this show where four Black Jazz musicians travel back in time to the Jazz age may sound a little strange but that’s the thing about this show, it’s subversive in every single way. By having the four main characters travel back and forth between the past and modern day, the show is able to compare and contrast the ways in which racism and racial relations have changed and evolved all the while placing Black people in a period piece which is rare to see in media. But above all else, the show always prioritises jokes meaning that though the aspects of racism certainly feature in the show, they’re not explored in the way they would be in a historical drama with the show instead offering up a light-hearted comedy that became something of a sleeper hit and gained popularity after originally airing on ITV.

Honourable mentions: ‘I May Destroy You’, ‘Top Boy’, ‘Noughts and Crosses’

Movies: ‘Rocks’ and ‘Burning an Illusion’

Rocks— There are very few British coming of age stories that focus on Black British people and of the few there are, they tend to focus on Black British boys with the main stories tending to be focused on crime. And while I do believe those types of stories are necessary both in that they give opportunities to little represented groups to have representation and are sometimes some of the only jobs available for young Black actors if they don’t go to the States, I do long for different types of stories on the Black British experience. Enter: ‘Rocks’, a 2020 Netflix film centred on a young Black British girl. I’m unfortunately no longer a teenager so I can’t say for certain, but to me this felt like a grounded and authentic representation of Black British teenagers today. There was none of that stilted “teen” lingo that you can tell was written by out of touch grown adults desperately trying to appear like they’re in touch with the youth of similar media, and the performances from Bukky Bakray who plays the central “Rocks” along with all the young actors who play her friends were naturalistic and endearing. The story at the heart of this film is certainly a sad one, but at no point are the young girls sexualised or brutalised which is rare to see on-screen. I could’ve only dreamed of films like this when I was a teenager.

Burning an Illusion— Following in the footsteps of stories such as those told in ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’ and ‘An American Marriage’, this film similarly looks at a young Black woman’s journey after her boyfriend is wrongfully arrested by Police. This film is rare in that it shows Police brutality here in the UK, a subject that is generally portrayed in our media as an exclusively American issue. Additionally, whilst it’s still rare for films to focus on young Black women’s everyday lives including and especially our romantic lives, it was even rarer to see in the 1980s which is when this film was released. The grounded and empathetic performance at its centre from Cassie McFarlane (one which she won awards for including the Evening Standard’s award for “Most Promising New Actress”) is one that draws you in and allows you to place yourself in her character’s shoes. The film retains its relevance to being a Black woman in Britain today and it’s one I’d highly recommend because it’s perhaps not as widely known as it should be.

Honourable mentions: ‘Been So Long’, ‘Blue Story’, ‘Sitting in Limbo’

Books: ‘Ordinary People’ and ‘The Lonely Londoners’

Ordinary People— Shortlisted for the 2019 Women’s Prize for fiction, this novel tells the story of two couples in 2008. Usually, if you read the synopsis of a novel and it mentioned themes such as love, parenthood, friendship, sex and other slice-of-life type themes and issues, you’d likely picture a group of attractive White people in their late 20s and 30s at the centre of the story because they are who tends to be the focus of such stories. This novel instead focuses on the story (mainly) on Black people because shock! horror!, black people experience all of these everyday things like love, friendship and aging as well, and our stories aren’t just about racism or slavery and suffering. This is what I enjoyed most about this novel, and I long for more Black stories that just treat us as ordinary people (that pun was unintentional) instead of Parables through which White people can learn that racism is bad.

The Lonely Londoners— This novel is considered a 20th century classic and I’m sure this won’t be the first time you’ve heard about it or had it be recommended to you. But with the so-called Windrush generation being in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, namely the “Windrush scandal” of people being wrongly detained and threatened with deportation, I think stories such as the one told in this novel that portray the lives of post-War migrants from the Caribbean when they first migrated to the UK and more importantly, humanises them beyond being a news headline and fodder for documentaries/governmental “inquiries” are of the utmost importance in my opinion. The novel follows Moses, Sir Galahad, Tolroy, Cap, Big City, Five Past Twelve, Lewis, Harris and Daniel, or “the boys”, as they navigate London in the 1950s in a way that’s equal parts comedic as it is revealing. With the novel being a semi-autobiographical account of the author Sam Selvon’s own experiences after moving here from Trinidad in the 1950s, I found the novel to be an interesting insight into the lives of our predecessors in this country and the ways in which things have and haven’t changed.

Honourable mentions: ‘White Teeth’, ‘Yardie’, ‘Queenie’

– T