Lenny Henry presents this groundbreaking BBC radio series exploring a hundred years of black British theatre, TV and film

Within this fascinating ten-part series, Lenny Henry traces the long and painful road that black Britons have travelled on stage and display screen, from your overt racial discrimination of the 19th Century, via the thinly veiled slurs that persisted through the first 70 many years of the 20th, to today’s even more equal society.

Interviewing playwrights, actors, directors and filmmakers – including about Bringing up the Pub: 100 Years of Black British Theatre and Display Mustapha Matura, Roy Williams, Lolita Chakrabarti, Michael Buffong, Horace Ové and Steve McQueen – he tells the storyplot of dark drama and the influential artists who have designed it over the past hundred years.

Beginning with the breakthrough arrival of Kwame Kwei-Armah’s celebrated tragedy Elmina’s Kitchen to the West End, he goes on to examine the changing depiction of Afro-Caribbeans on Television from Love Thy Neighbour to Desmond’s; explores the complicated stage background of Othello; targets how Caribbean migration continues to be shown on stage and display screen; and journeys back again to the 1960s and 70s to explore the spirit of protest that welled up with the advancement of the Dark Power movement.

In addition, he talks about the burgeoning dark theatre companies of the 1970s and 80s; graphs the breakthrough of a host of powerful fresh voices in the 90s; scrutinizes attitudes towards homosexuality; investigates the existing blossoming of fresh theatrical voices with roots in Africa and concludes with a glance at future prospects and possibilities for black United kingdom talent.