David Harewood on Blackface

David Harewood on Blackface 2023

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At its peak, The Black and White Minstrel Show was watched by a Saturday night audience of more than 20 million people. David Harewood goes on a mission to understand the roots of this strange, intensely problematic cultural form: where did the show come from, and what made it popular for so long? With the help of historians, actors and musicians, David uncovers how, at its core, blackface minstrelsy was simply an attempt to make racism into an art form - and can be traced back to a name and a date.

2023

The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files

The Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files 2019

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David Olusoga opens secret government files to show how the Windrush scandal and the ‘hostile environment’ for black British immigrants has been 70 years in the making.

2019

Our NHS: A Hidden History

Our NHS: A Hidden History 2021

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As we emerge from a global pandemic that has turned our world upside down, David Olusoga explores the hidden history of the nurses, doctors and health workers who, for more than 70 years, have been coming to Britain from overseas to serve in the NHS. Without them the NHS would have been in danger of collapse - not least during the current COVID crisis - but from the very start the story of this beloved British institution has been intertwined with one of the most divisive social and political issue of the age, immigration. The people who came to this country to work in the NHS have found themselves fighting battles they neither sought nor expected.

2021

Statue Wars: One Summer in Bristol

Statue Wars: One Summer in Bristol 2021

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Documentary following Bristol’s mayor, Marvin Rees, as he and the city respond to the extraordinary events which followed the toppling of the Colston Statue in the summer of 2020.

2021