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A CULTURAL HISTORY of BLACK BRITAIN in 1970S FILM and TELEVISION

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A CULTURAL HISTORY of BLACK BRITAIN in 1970S FILM and TELEVISION ‘BUT WHERE ON EARTH IS HOME?’ A CULTURAL HISTORY OF BLACK BRITAIN IN 1970s FILM AND TELEVISION Sally Shaw This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Portsmouth [Volume 1] September 2014 DECLARATION Whilst registered as a candidate for the above degree, I have not been registered for any other research award. The results and conclusions embodied in this thesis are the work of the named candidate and have not been submitted for any other academic award. Word Count: 89799 words ABSTRACT This thesis adopts an interdisciplinary approach in order to explore the social and cultural history of black Britain in 1970s fictional film and television. It draws on rigorous archival research, original interview testimony with practitioners and audience members, and close textual analysis of visual sources, in order to examine relations between black film and television texts and the social, political and institutional contexts of their authorship. The key focus of my study is therefore on black creative agency. Whilst prior studies have addressed black expression and representation in film and television, few have attempted to trace the process of creativity itself. My study uniquely traces the black creative voice in an historical period of emergence and conflict, and endeavours to ‘map’ it in terms of networks of (white and black) practitioners, the spaces of industrial production and the metaphorical, geographical and diasporic spaces of community and socio-political action. The thesis is structured in two parts. In Part 2, my ‘mapping’ encompasses a broad landscape – I ‘map the field’ socio-politically and then provide a survey of the significant range of feature films and television programmes concerned with black Britain in the 1970s. I then present three case studies. These are chosen for their variety of genre and form, for the valuable insights they offer into production and reception histories, and because they demonstrate the usefulness of the imaginative interpretation of archival and interview material in reappraising film and television texts in their historical contexts. In Part 3, I then draw on this methodological approach in order to ‘map’ the creative journey of the poet and playwright Jamal Ali, who worked in radical black theatre, film and television in the 1970s. Ali’s story provides an exemplar for the exploration of black creative agency in this period. Furthermore, the Brixton of Ali’s life and work is explored both as a site of socio- political struggle and as a liminal space in which diasporic community and black identity are imaginatively located. DISSEMINATION Publications Shaw, S. Screening black political struggle on 1970s British Television: the case of the ‘Play for Today’ A Hole in Babylon (Ové, 1979, BBC). Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television. (forthcoming 2015) Shaw, S. (2012). A ‘country boy’ migrates to Brixton – re-examining agency, identity and memory in and through Black Joy. Crossings: Journal of Migration and Culture, 3 (2), 271-282. Shaw, S. (2012). ‘Light Entertainment as Contested Socio-political Space: Audience and Institutional Responses to Love Thy Neighbour. Critical Studies in Television, 7 (1), 64-78. Shaw, S. (2012). ‘Picking up the Tab’ for the Whole Black Community?: Industrial, Social and Institutional Challenges as Exemplified in Babylon. In S. Harper and J. Smith (Eds.), British Film Culture in the 1970s – The Boundaries of Pleasure (pp.75-84). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press Ltd. Presentations From radical black theatre production to television adaptation: Black Feet in the Snow (Skilton, 1974, BBC2). Screen Plays: Theatre Plays on British Television, University of Westminster, (forthcoming 19-20 February 2015). ‘I actually shot it on location at the Knightsbridge Spaghetti House’ – depicting black politicised spaces in A Hole in Babylon (Ove, 1979, BBC). Spaces of Television International Conference, University of Reading, 18-20 September 2013. ‘We are an exile race’: Exploring Diasporic ‘Narratives of Displacement’ in and through the Traces of Jamal Ali’s poetry and plays. British Comparative Literature Association XIII International Conference Migration, University of Essex, 8-11 July 2013. ‘Radical black theatre performance and television space: Black Feet in the Snow (1974, BBC)’, Performance and Television Space, University of Glamorgan, 20 April 2012. The ethics of the interview, Research Ethics Showcase, Graduate School, University of Portsmouth, 26 March 2013. ‘Holler back at the screen’ – Memory and identity in audience responses to Black Joy’ Annual Inter-Centre Postgraduate Symposium, University of Portsmouth, 18 May 2011. ‘Light Entertainment’ as contested socio-political space: audience and institutional responses to Love Thy Neighbour’,The Politics of Television Space, University of Leicester, 8 April, 2011. ‘Capturing images but losing voices? – Uncovering the hidden history of Black Joy’, Lambeth Archives Open Day, Lambeth Archives, Brixton, 25 September 2010. ‘Spend a night out in Brixton’ – The 1970s ghetto tourism of Black Joy and the lost voice of Jamal Ali’, Lost London: Explorations of a Dark Metropolis, Sheffield Hallam University, 14-15 June 2010. ‘It’s about blacks but it’s not a black movie’. Racial tension and the film producer – Gavrik Losey and Babylon’, Centre for European and International Studies Postgraduate Study Day, University of Portsmouth, 13 May, 2009. ‘God is a white man: Representations of the fragmentation of religion and belief systems in Babylon, Pressure and A Hole in Babylon’, 1970s British Culture, University of Portsmouth, 1-3 July 2008. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A good number of people have helped me during the period of my research. My PhD supervisor, Justin Smith has been amazing in his level of support, guidance, kindness and rigorous attention to detail. I simply cannot thank him enough. I would also like to thank Sue Harper for her help and support over the years, not least in giving me the opportunity to undertake this project in the first place. I am deeply grateful for the support of all my friends and colleagues in SCAFM. Graham Spencer, Stephen Harper, Trudy Barber, Van Norris, Lincoln Geraghty, Mike O’Neill, Ieuan Franklin, Esther Sonnet, Sophia Wood, Rebecca Janiker, Emma Austin, John Caro, Laurie Ede and Simon Hobbs have provided wise and cheerful counsel on numerous occasions, as have many other members of the department. I was lucky enough to share an office with Saer Ba, who was generous with his ideas and provided much inspiration. I would also like to thank Imogen Jeffrey, whose kindness and efficiency has smoothed my path on many an occasion. Quite simply, it has been a joy to work in such a vibrant and friendly school. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my very dear friends Sian Barber, Patti Gaal- Holmes and Mick Morris, all of whom gave me constant support and encouragement throughout this process. I also wish to thank my husband David Carpenter, who has helped and supported me in ways too numerous to mention. Thanks must also go to my Dad and Sandra, both of whom showed me a good deal of generosity and kindness, especially during the busy final months of this project. Finally, I would like to thank my interviewees, Anthony Simmons, Graham Benson, Horace Ové, Jamal Ali, Peter Ansorge, Michael and Stacy, for their time and generosity. DEDICATION For my wonderful grandmother, Barbara Brackley. CONTENTS TO VOLUME ONE PART 1 - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Sources 10 1.3 Methodology and Structure 24 PART 2 - MAPPING THE FIELD 2.1 Mapping the field 1: Socio-political context 41 2.2 Mapping the field 2: A survey of black film and television 66 2.3 Case Study 1: Love Thy Neighbour 108 2.4 Case Study 2: Babylon 126 2.5 Case Study 3: A Hole in Babylon 143 PART 3 – BLACK AGENCY AND EXPRESSION AND ITS CROSS-MEDIA ADAPTATION: AN EXTENDED CASE STUDY ON JAMAL ALI Introduction to Part 3 163 3.1 Background, biography and theatre 164 3.2 From stage to television: Black Feet in the Snow 190 3.3 From stage to feature film: Black Joy 218 3.4 ‘Bringing it all back home’: Black Joy comes to Brixton 250 CONCLUSION 277 Bibliography (Books and Journals) 300 Bibliography (Archival Sources) 309 Bibliography (Interviews) 315 Bibliography (Film) 316 Bibliography (Television) 318 Bibliography (Stage Plays) 320 1 PART 1 – INTRODUCTION Introduction This work is the result of my involvement with an AHRC-funded project on British cinema of the 1970s at the University of Portsmouth (2006-2009). This project fostered my interest in black British cinema and television of the period, for which I subsequently received an AHRC (open-competition) doctoral studentship award. This study is a social and cultural history of black Britain in 1970s film and television. As such it examines relations between black film and television texts and the social, political and institutional contexts of their authorship. The primary focus of my study is on black creative agency. The question that is posed throughout this thesis is: what happened to black creative agency in what was a politically contested arena? ‘But where on earth is home?’ is a quote from Jamal Ali’s 1972 play Black Feet in the Snow. As well as highlighting the centrality of Ali’s work to this study, it captures the theme of a diasporic search for home and belonging, which is implicit in many of the texts that I have surveyed and emphasises aspects of community relations and cultural geography which are key to my work. This thesis will explore the wide range of creative interventions by black writers, directors and actors in film and television the 1970s. In so doing it will address a number of key questions. To begin with, the black experience was articulated across an unprecedented range of fictional forms in film and television during the 1970s and the decade witnessed the ‘coming of age’ of ‘second generation’ black British youths.
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