‘Statue was an insult’ Bridgerton star was glad to see Colston fall
BRIDGERTON star Adjoa Andoh said she rejoiced when the statue of Edward Colston was pulled down by protesters in Bristol and says growing up Black in the West Country has shaped her latest role.
The actor’s parents moved from Bristol to the Cotswolds when she was four because they feared their children would be sent to a ‘sink’ school.
But the actor famous for playing Mrs Danbury in the costume drama says she struggled being one of the few black people growing up in a Gloucestershire village And she is currently using this childhood experiences of being ‘othered’ to play Richard III on the stage.
Adjoa first read the Shakespeare play growing up as a “dweeby kid” in the Cotswolds. Richard’s character resonated because he was scorned by society on account of a physical disability. Some have criticised the “maverick reimagining” of the Shakespeare play which is now set in the heart of the Cotswolds countryside. Adjoa has worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the Royal Court but it was playing Bridgerton’s Lady Danbury that led to global fame. She also appears in a Netflix prequel spin-off about Queen Charlotte and her marriage to King George.
Adjoa says the Netflix series is not colour blind because people of colour existed at all levels of society but have been painted out of history. Charlotte was a woman of African and European heritage but is portrayed in various colours in paintings from the day. The actor expects things to change now Bridgerton has let the genie out the bottle in terms of diverse casting in period dramas.
Her Ghanian journalist father and Liverpudlian history teacher mother moved to Wickwar in Gloucestershire because “there was a disproportionately high number of black children being sent to educationally-subnormal schools,” she says. She attended Katharine Lady Berkeley in Wotton-under-Edge.
Adjoa has spoken of this part of her life as being “idyllic but tricky” and says she was conscious of Bristol’s historical links with slavery from a young age. “I’ve walked the streets of Bristol for years, and I know the paving stones under my feet were bought with the trafficked bodies of black Africans,” she said.
“They made Bristol a wealthy city, same with Liverpool. The wealth from trafficked Africans has made Britain what it is today.”
And she rejoiced the day in June 2020 when the Bristol statue of Edward Colston was pulled down. “It was an insult to walk by every day,” she says. “Why are we celebrating the man who made his money by kidnapping, trafficking and killing other human beings?
“I think it should be in a museum and we should learn about the full legacy there. That’s what history should be full knowledge of everything: good, bad and indifferent.”
The Colston statue was recovered from the harbour and put in a temporary display at the M Shed.
On February 3 2022 the We Are Bristol History Commission recommended, following public consultation, that it should be put on display in the city’s museum.