Arts & Culture
‘Small Axe’ – BBC Unveils First Look Steve McQueen Period Drama
05 March 2020
BBC One |
The BBC has unveiled the first images of Small Axe, its period drama from 12 Years A Slave director Steve McQueen. Amazon is co-producing in the U.S.
The six-part anthology series, which is set in London’s West Indian community between the 1960’s-’80’s, stars Black Panther’s Letitia Wright and Star Wars‘ John Boyega.
Malachi Kirby (Roots), Shaun Parkes (Lost In Space), Rochenda Sandall (Line Of Duty), Alex Jennings (Victoria) and Jack Lowden (Mary Queen Of Scots) also star.
The Oscar-winning writer and director has said that the series will tell the story of a West Indian community in the heart of London across three decades, beginning at the moment of Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech in 1968.
It starts in 1968, when a small restaurant called The Mangrove opens in Ladbroke Grove, a place of camaraderie and friendship that becomes a social heart for the community – and, over time, a flashpoint for resistance.
The long-gestating series’ title is derived from a Jamaican proverb: “If you are the big tree, we are the small axe,” meaning that relatively marginal or small voices of dissent can successfully challenge more powerful ones.
The series will air later this year on BBC One, with Amazon in the U.S.
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