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Lenny Henry on his Windrush series: ‘We felt the sting of injustice sharply’ | Television & radio


Last year the nation set out to celebrate a bold, brave and pioneering generation; those who, in 1948, made the transatlantic journey aboard the Empire Windrush in search of a ‘better’ life.

The Windrush generation, and the deportation scandal they were the victims of last year, is something that both myself and Angela Ferreira, the managing director of my production company Douglas Road Productions, feel strongly about. We are both of Caribbean origin, via the Midlands, and felt the sting of this injustice sharply.

We began to talk about how we might address the situation through some kind of TV programme. At the time BBC Arts had been pitched similar ideas by Kwame Kwei Armah, who had recently taken over as Top Dude [Artistic Director] at the Young Vic theatre in London. They suggested we pool our resources and work together on a Windrush-related project, which sounded fantastic. Before the Young Vic, Kwame had been running a theatre in Baltimore and making great waves over there, producing, directing and writing challenging and exciting work for a delighted audience. I’m a big fan, not only because he’s good looking, articulate and suave and knows his onions, but also – when called upon, he can sing the pants off of Superstition by Stevie Wonder.

The cast of Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle.



The cast of Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle. Photograph: BBC/Douglas Road Productions/Carlton Dixon

Together, we set out to ask questions of those who made the long journey: why they came to Britain, what happened to them once they got here, and how they felt about their new home – an approach that felt particularly pertinent because the media has tended to focus only on the sensational aspects of the Windrush crisis. We developed a series of eight 15-minute monologues for BBC Four that dig a little deeper into the personal aspects of the story. Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle pays tribute to Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads by having our characters address the camera as the story unfolds. However, these aren’t static pieces. Our young, gifted and diverse directors have made a drama with movement, emotion and technical prowess.

Soon Gone is punctuated by a number of real-life events that will help to place this 70-year journey; the recent scandal has been woven into the story, as have the Brixton Riots of 1981, the 1993 murder of Stephen Lawrence and the London and England-wide riots of 2011. As storytellers it would be irresponsible not to touch on these moments, but the scandal wasn’t the prime catalyst: we wanted to honour the pioneering generation, now in their twilight years.

While Soon Gone explores the full range of emotion, particularly in those charged moments – there were a lot of laughs in the writers room talking about the ‘everyday’ of the home. This is a series full of love and passion, alongside the recounting of struggles and challenges.

Eunice, played by Danielle Vitalis.



Eunice, played by Danielle Vitalis. Photograph: BBC/Douglas Road Productions/Carlton Dixon

Soon Gone is made up of an interconnected series of stories, beginning with the 1948 arrival of the family’s matriarch Eunice Daley (played by Danielle Vitalis), who then has had a baby called Yvonne under stressful circumstances. You’re also introduced to young Cyrus (Clifford Samuel), who comes to the UK to work, and hear all about how he and Eunice met. You’ll encounter their son Kev, the only black employee in a 1960s London garage, and daughter Yvonne, embracing political activism in the wake of the New Cross fire. Later on in the series you’ll meet older Cyrus, who I play; he’s lived in the UK for more than half a century. He has some things to say about the deportation situation – how he’s been treated in this country, his relationship with Eunice, and what’s happened to the Caribbean community while he’s been in Britain. Of course, my parents, along with the parents of many others within the cast and crew, arrived during those early post-war decades. There is an authenticity that is felt throughout this series – from the words that are spoken to the family drinks trolley and artwork on the walls of the front room.

The arrival of Eunice Mervis Daley on the Windrush and the subsequent tales of her children and grandchildren are safe with us. We’re proud as punch to give voice to a marginalised community, currently being threatened with deportation from a motherland they thought had welcomed them with open arms.

If this series can get people looking at this period of history from a new angle, seeing things from another perspective and asking questions, then we’ll have achieved something significant.

Soon Gone: A Windrush Chronicle starts Sunday 17 February, 10pm, on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer. The series is a partnership between BBC Arts, the Young Vic theatre and Douglas Road Productions



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