Raising the Bar: 100 Years of Black British Theatre and Screen (Radio 4) | iPlayer
One to One (Radio 4) | iPlayer
Raising the Bar: 100 Years of Black British Theatre and Screen began with an apology. Lenny Henry said that there was a lot to cover and he was sorry if the series missed anyone out. He was right to do so: Raising the Bar (10 episodes of 15 minutes) is a whizz through history, almost reaching Melvyn Bragg-style In Our Time warp-speeds on occasion. It’s enjoyable – Henry is an engaging, warm presenter – and important, reminding us in just the second episode of how recently racism was offered up as mainstream entertainment.
The “jokes” in Love Thy Neighbour made uncomfortable listening, as did the BBC’s excuse for continuing to broadcast The Black and White Minstrel Show until 1978, despite the many protests against it. “Many of the signatories are no doubt new to this country and would perhaps not be aware that black-faced minstrels performing a song-and-dance act have been a traditional form of entertainment in the British Isles for a great many years.”
It was great to hear from Desmond’s actor Carmen Monroe, and I’ve been enjoying the series. But Henry’s apology couldn’t cover all the gaps. The first programme concerned itself with an event it trumpeted as seminal: the transfer of a play written by a black British writer to the West End. In 2005, Elmina’s Kitchen, by Kwame Kwei-Armah, moved from the National Theatre to the Garrick. But around the same time, another show with a black cast, written by a black British writer, transferred to the West End with just as much success: The Big Life. And that show had a black director too, Clint Dyer: the first black British director to direct in the West End.
Dyer and The Big Life did not feature in Raising the Bar. Why? The Big Life was a ska musical and originated at Stratford East. Elmina’s Kitchen has no songs and was commissioned by the National. It’s not the transfer that matters, but the National. The establishment has its own cultural rules, and applies them even when it thinks it doesn’t.
Ages ago, I went to see Public Enemy’s Chuck D do a talk. He said that black people are allowed to be the software of culture: to sing, to act, to dance, maybe to write. But it’s not until they become the hardware – the commissioners, the producers, the directors, the bosses – that they will really have made it. So I checked out the team behind Raising the Bar, which features many black entertainers and is a lovely, vital piece of work. However, until such programmes – and others – are produced, researched and commissioned by non-white people, it can only be seen as a relative success.
In One to One last week, David Schneider talked to palliative care consultant Kathryn Mannix. He talked to her because he is very frightened of death and Mannix has worked with many dying people. She works with their families too, and talked about the moment that dying people actually die. It’s very often when those keeping vigil around the bed slip out, just for a minute, just for a second. Somehow, the dying person knows and chooses that moment to go.
This was a moving and inspiring conversation. Mannix insisted that her work means that she is no longer frightened of death. I’m not sure I feel that, yet – and judging by Schneider’s jumpy little harrumphs, neither does he – but this programme certainly made death seem more of a part of everyday life. This week, Schneider will be talking to the fabulous – and dying – Jenny Diski. Don’t miss that one.
