From In the Heat of the Night to Loose
Women, Black
British actors, directors and producers recall their landmark film and TV viewing experiences
I was about eight or nine years old. We had one TV in the house which sometimes people fought for control over. In those days, you watched one channel at a time and if you missed your programme, well, you missed it. I had been playing in the garden or something when I heard loud shouts of “Yes!” “Gwaan!” “You See Dat!?” I went to see what was going on. It was normally sport that got that kind of reaction, but I found my grandfather, uncle and aunt watching an
American Black man on television in a suit, staring at an older white man wearing an apron. I was only small but I realised something big had happened.