One man’s tale of Windrush scandal

SITTING IN LIMBO

BBC1, 8.30pm

INSPIRED by just one of the shocking real-life stories from the Windrush scandal, this feature-length drama explores its devastating toll.

Patrick Robinson plays Anthony Bryan, who is wrongfully detained by the Home Office and threatened with deportation after 50 years of living in the UK.

It starts with real footage of Theresa May, declaring: “The Government will soon publish the Immigration Bill which will make it easier to get rid of people with no right to be here.”

Cut to Anthony being told by an apologetic boss that he has lost his job because he is not a UK citizen.

“This is a joke right?” he says. “I’ve been in this country my whole life.”

A letter on his doorstep confirms the worst. He can’t work, can’t use the NHS, can’t claim benefits and there’s no explanation. Of course, it’s impossible to get through to anyone on the phone, he can only join a massive queue of people to find out what’s happening.

Having moved to the UK from Jamaica in 1965 at the age of eight, he has discovered there is no record of him as a British citizen.

But the onus is now on him to prove it to the Home Office.

It’s an incredibly frustrating, sad and isolating experience – he needs everything from his birth certificate from Jamaica to school records from the 1970s.

“From one human to another, what’s going on?” Anthony pleads to the Home Office worker.

This is a heartbreaking, shocking drama about a scandal of our times.