The Rise and Fall of Nellie Brown

The Rise and Fall of Nellie Brown (Play of the Week)

Liverpool
1964-12-28
Sound
71m

An incredibly joyous TV musical about a young woman's search for her long-lost cousin.

A delightful Christmas musical about a young Jamaican woman who flees her humdrum Liverpool lodgings in search of her glamorous London cousin. Broadcast live on 28 December 1964, this rare TV musical is one of few to have survived from the 1960s. A tale of Afro-Caribbean immigration, the show is unusual for its time in that it doesn't labour the issues around racial tensions in Britain, but simply celebrates Christmas and family.

The star of the programme, Millie Small, had scored a worldwide pop hit in the spring of 1964 with her breakthrough single My Boy Lollipop. She's joined by established entertainers Elisabeth Welch and Ron Moody and popular 1960s TV faces like Kenny Lynch and Brian Mosley (Corrie's Alf Roberts) in this entertaining musical fantasy full of Christmas cheer.

Black Britain on Film

Striking, illuminating and sometimes surprising images of black culture, community and characters, spanning over a century of British film and TV.

From some of the earliest appearances at the dawn of the 20th century to groundbreaking postwar documentaries and contemporary features, this collection charts changing attitudes and hidden histories. Here are the trailblazers, the icons, the stereotypes, the controversies. These richly varied films uncover sometimes surprising histories of black culture and community. They tackle troubling issues of race, representation and identity. And they highlight some of the best of black British filmmaking, from the work of pioneers Horace Ové and Menelik Shabazz to later innovators John Akomfrah and Ngozi Onwurah