It’s Lenny’s Caribbean culture club
WHEN Sir Lenny Henry was a kid, he clearly remembers his mother lining him and his siblings up and telling them in no uncertain terms to “integrate”.
Growing up in Dudley in a “very, very Caribbean household”, the son of Jamaican parents, his mother desperately wanted them to fit in.
Sir Lenny says: “Everything we did was Jamaican. The way we talked, what we ate, the music we played, all Jamaican.”
In this joyous celebration of British-Caribbean life, Sir Lenny asks what did this integration mean? Did they have to sacrifice their Caribbean culture? And how much of this culture has Britain absorbed?
A host of famous faces from art, music, entertainment, TV and theatre come together as Lenny gathers some friends who have “been there, done that and literally made the sauce” – he’s talking of course about Levi Roots, whose jerk barbecue Reggae Reggae Sauce was famously a winner on Dragons’ Den.
The film sweeps through the decades, taking in how BritishCaribbean shave innovated in all walks of life, including the worlds of comedy, music, sport and art.
Sir Lenny says: “Caribbeans didn’t just integrate. Not only have we moved this country’s cultural needle, we’ve managed to break the thing right off.”
Not another historical tour, this film is funny, frank and full of big personalities. Over two episodes, guests including Jazzie Baroness Floella Benjamin, David Harewood, Judi Love, Trevor Nelson, Billy Ocean, Andi Oliver, Levi Roots and Benjamin Zephaniah, who share their stories and experiences.
In part one, Lenny looks at the explosion of culture by the postwar arrivals, from calypso and ska music to stories of activisim and resilience.