Black Sheriff of Nottingham

From the collection of

MACE is the strategic lead organisation for screen heritage for the East and West Midlands regions. An independent charity based at University of Lincoln, MACE preserves and makes accessible a collection of more than 100,000 historic moving images representative of the diverse cultures and histories of communities throughout the heart of England from the Lincolnshire coast to the Welsh border.

Black Sheriff of Nottingham

Media Archive for Central England
Nottingham
1989-11-19
Sound
7m

He jokes that he's joined the 'chain gang' but there is more than ceremonial robes for Tony Robinson as Nottingham's first black Sheriff.

The role of Sheriff of Nottingham was originally an enforcer of the law and dates back to Anglo Saxon times. Since the formation of a police force it has become a ceremonial job with a nod to the tourist trade. However, in 1989 a minor landmark was reached for the historical role when Tony Robinson was named as the first black recipient of the title. A former Nottingham bus driver Robinson was getting used to life in a chauffeur driven car after twenty five years on the buses.

Tony Robinson was also the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1993 and 1997. He died in 2002.

Black Lives

Portraits of public and private lives against the shifting social climate of 20th century Britain.

Black communities, like many Global majority groups, have long been ill-served by a mainstream British media accustomed to reflecting predominantly white, middle-class lives - a problem entrenched in the second half of the 20th century with the rise of television. Yet a rich tapestry of work from across the boundaries of fiction and non-fiction, film and TV, made for (though not always by) black people, does exist. This selection contains many surprises – some joyous, some sobering, some heartbreaking – and highlights the often painfully slow progress in addressing negative representations and stereotypes on screen. Impassioned and sometimes violent dispatches from the front line in the fight for racial equality can be found here, but so too can records of progress: in the pioneers breaking new ground in culture, politics and sport, and in the more mundane glimpses of everyday life. And this story is not just London’s story: the selection takes a journey around Britain, to a Nigerian wedding in 1960s Cornwall, an ‘African village’ in Essex and a Caribbean restaurant opening in West Bromwich; Newcastle