Current Students and Staff

Black History Month: 'Has Britain a Colour Bar?': Britain's first race relations TV programme

• 16 October 2024
• 4.30pm-5.30pm
• Pilkington Library, Seminar Room 1

º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ this event

'Has Britain a Colour Bar?' first aired in January 1955. The original Radio Times listing read: "The recent immigration of many thousands of West Indians has focused attention on the problems of our coloured citizens. Have we the jobs for them - or the houses? Do we give them a fair deal?"

In this session, Marcus Collins revisits the first British television programme about ‘race’ relations. 'Has Britain a Colour Bar' (1955) is an eye-opening (even jaw-dropping) documentary about the experiences of West Indian, African and South Asian people who settled in Birmingham. The programme will be introduced by Marcus Collins, Reader in Contemporary History at º¬Ðß²ÝÊÓƵ, who has delved into the BBC archives to find out why the programme was commissioned, how it was filmed and what impact it made on ‘race’ relations in 1950s Britain.

The session will feature clips from the original documentary, The full programme can be viewed on BBC iPlayer.