Multicultural TV

This collection covers programming that emerged from specialist multicultural and Black broadcasting units.
A multicultural Britain was forebodingly cast as an oncoming social issue. Only at the behest of campaigning by the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (established in 1965) did the programming introduced begin to frame Asian and later Black Britons as part of British society and cater directly to their needs. The earliest examples were programmes broadcast by the BBC Apna Hi Ghar Samajhiye (1965) and Nai Zindagi Naya Jeevan (New Life), which helped improve the English skills of recent Asian migrants. Targeted programming initially emerged regionally, and franchise holders in the midlands who feared the impending reallocation of franchises reacted quickly, leading to multicultural programming such as Here Today, Here Tomorrow (ATV, 1978), Here and Now (Central TV, 1978). In London, London Weekend Television produced Babylon (LWT, 1979), and the London Minorities Unit produced Skin (1980), an extensive focus of our collection. During the emergence of Channel 4, Black programming was in-built into the new channel. Black commissioners, researchers, and presenters emerged, leading to Black and Asian-led series like Black on Black (1982), Eastern Eye (1982), Bandung File (1985), and Black Bag (1985). These programmes catered not only with increasing specificity to their respective audiences but also took on an increasingly globally connective approach centred around acknowledging the intricacy of diasporic relations.
25 items in this collection

Bob Marley

Black Actors

Attacks on Asians and West Indians

Immigration Laws Part 1

Bengalis and the Rag Trade

Here and Now

After the Deptford Fire: A Watershed in British Relations

Here and Now

Multi-cultural Education

Divided Families

Football

Blues Parties

Here and Now

Asian Doctors

Here and Now

25 Years of Black British Part 4

Education in Haringey

Benjamin Zephaniah, James Berry and Buchi Emecheta at Words to Life (Here and Now)

The Deptford Fire

Police - Black Relations Part Two

Black Churches

Immigration Laws Part 2

Villain Boroughs

Housing in Southall

Here and Now