Sitting In Limbo has been widely praised for telling the important and heartbreaking story of one man’s experience during the Windrush
immigration scandal.
The
BBC drama aired on Monday night and was written by Stephen S Thompson, whose brother Anthony Bryan was wrongfully detained by the Home Office and threatened with deportation.
Like thousands of other
British Caribbeans, Anthony arrived in the
UK as a child with his mother following the post-war call for workers in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Windrush scandal exposed that the government’s “hostile environment” policies had wrongly classed some British Caribbeans who had been in the country for decades as illegal immigrants, who were denied healthcare and benefits, and in some cases, were detained or deported.
In Sitting In Limbo, viewers saw the devastating impact this had on the lives of Anthony – played by Patrick Robinson – and his family, and their fight to keep him in the country. The drama was met with a huge reaction online, trending at number one on
Twitter in the UK on Monday night, with viewers and commentators highlighting how important it was to tell this story. We know the story and this is still so f**king heartbreaking to watch 😥 #SittingInLimbo— Ian Wright (@IanWright0) June 8, 2020Imagine you’ve convinced yourself the UK isn’t racist only for the BBC to air a program saying otherwise. The timing of #SittingInLimbo is spectacular 🤝😂— KM (@KurtisMpundu) June 8, 2020Fully recommend watching Sitting in Limbo on BBC iPlayer, important watch.— Delphinium (@CtrlAltDelphine) June 9, 2020Gut wrenching, emotional yet sadly true #SittingInLimbo is a must watch. So proud of the whole creative that made his masterpiece happen. https://t.co/nayz6pDbZS— June Sarpong OBE (@junesarpong) June 8, 2020Unbelievable. Powerful. Moving. EVERYONE should go out their way to watch Sitting In Limbo on iPlayer. Those in power should be ashamed. People are not statisticsThe timing of this couldn’t be more perfect. #SittingInLimbo#Windrush#BlackLivesMatterUK— Andy Quildan (@AQuildan) June 8, 2020#SittingInLimbo is more proof that Great
Britain is institutionally racist. The Govt is its Chief PerpetratorFURIOUS at the injustice of #windrushscandal & dehumanisation of Anthony Bryan & others. Yet this isn't the worst of itThis. Is. A. National Disgrace.#BlackLivesMatter— Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu (@SholaMos1) June 8, 2020When you watch #SittingInLimbo and read and watch the real Anthony Bryan and discover just a handful of hundreds of Windrush scandal victims have yet had any compensation you might think about where else the thuggery is and where justice needs to be done.— Krishnan Guru-Murthy (@krishgm) June 8, 2020Sitting In Limbo is like some fucked up Orwellian nightmare. Except it’s worse than that, because it’s reality.In light of the current climate, it’s timing is impeccable.We must expose the depths of systemic
racism if we want to move forward. 👊#SittingInLimbo— Will (@PixelatedPike) June 8, 2020Very hard-hitting, very timely, very important viewing. Being from Caribbean heritage it is hard to watch this without feeling devastated. "I feel I have to beg to stay in my country", what a poignant line. https://t.co/CxumL6FJm8— Louie Harding (@LouieHarding123) June 9, 2020Me with Anthony Bryan and other Windrush scandal victims the day the Review and compensation scheme was announced. We must never forget their story and never stop fighting for justice #blacklivesmatter#SittingInLimbopic.twitter.com/0p1GtHa0eD— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) June 8, 2020Wow. Sitting in Limbo was one powerful piece of television tonight.— Russ Weaver (@russweaver27) June 8, 2020It was one of the most important and necessary TV dramas in recent years, but only 2.4m people watched. Word of mouth should really help increase the visibility of this drama as it wasn’t that well promoted. #SittingInLimbohttps://t.co/DE1b0WIL2M— Elliot Gonzalez (@elliot_gonzalez) June 9, 2020Sitting in Limbo: https://t.co/IEPhYW5o3CA difficult but essential watch, esp if you struggle to engage with stats & news reports.The Windrush scandal is (not was) outrageous & we need to demand our MPs take action.Watch this. Write to your MP. Demand change. #BlackLivesMatter— Emma Lamond (@emmalamond23) June 8, 2020Scandal is not a strong enough word for what this country did to the Windrush generation. It’s utterly shameful. A national disgrace. #SittingInLimbo— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) June 8, 2020Thompson previously told how he hoped viewers would take away “the fact that this is an authentic slice of the Black British experience in the early part of the 21st century”.
He added: “The Windrush scandal has affected my perception on Black British identity quite fundamentally. For the first time in my life I had to question whether I’m British or not. It doesn’t get more fundamental than that and it’s because of what has happened to my brother. I’m still dealing with that.”
A pre-credits sequence revealed that Anthony has only received an offer of compensation for just one part of his application to the Windrush Compensation Scheme, for unlawful detention.
In May, the Home Office revealed that there had been 1,275 applications to the scheme, but only 60 had received any compensation.
Sitting In Limbo is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now. READ MORE: Windrush Generation To Be Remembered In New Waterloo Station Memorial 'Windrush' Refers To Families Like Mine – So Why Had I Never Heard It Before? As A Windrush Victim, No Amount Of Compensation Can Make Up For 35 Years Of Lost Time