Pressure, Conflict and Creativity

Available for over a year

To end the first week of Raising the Bar, in the fifth of ten programmes tracing a century of black British theatre and screen, Lenny Henry takes a journey back to the 1960s and 70s to catch the spirit of protest and violent anger that welled up as the result of years of overt or thinly-veiled racism. With the advent of the Black Power movement, British African Caribbeans found a new and angry voice - it expressed itself on stage and on screen, notably in Horace Ové's film Pressure, that tells the story of a young black British boy growing up under powerful influences: his old parents' rectitude, his own desire to make his way in the society he's been born into, and the angry, uncompromising voices of his Black Power advocate brother. Horace Ové talks to Lenny Henry about the world that inspired this famous first British feature film by a black director. Series Consultant Michael Pearce Producer Simon Elmes.