The Revolution Was Televised

Successive uprisings across Britain responded to a climate of hostile policing. We review these actions through the lens of multicultural reporting.

  • Total running time 104min

Skin: Police Black Relations – Part One

LWT 1980. LWT. Director Trevor Hampton. 26min. Digital

The London Riots – A Special Report (extract)

LWT 1981. LWT. 5min. Digital

Skin: Brixton The Riots One Year On – Part One

LWT 1982. Director David Coulter. 28min. Digital

Ebony

BBC 1984. Series Producer Christopher Graham. 30min. Digital

Thames TV Eye – Birmingham Riots (extract)

LWT 1985. Editor Mike Townson. 15min. Digital

Skin’s non-fiction output was prescient. In 1980, it covered the issue of aggressive behaviour by the police towards Black communities, presaging the uprisings in cities across the UK – from Toxteth and Handsworth to Brixton, Chapeltown and Moss Side – which saw young Black people rejecting the brutal climate of policing. During these events, multicultural investigative programming was shunted off air. It was only able to reflect critically on these events in the years that followed.