Western Daily Press (Saturday)
How mayor dealt with fallout from Colston’s fall
THE inside story of the Mayor of Bristol in the days, weeks and months after the statue of Edward Colston was toppled in Bristol last year will be told in an hour-long documentary to be screened by the BBC next week.
The programme, called Statue Wars, will be shown on BBC2 next Thursday, days after the first anniversary of the toppling of the statue of Edward Colston thrust Bristol and its mayor into the global limelight.
The film crew making the programme are from Uplands Television, the TV production company of Professor David Olusoga, the Bristol-based historian who made A House Through Time, which coincidentally told the story of a slave ship captain’s house in the week before and after the statue was toppled last June.
A film crew was granted access to the mayor’s office within just a day or so, as Marvin Rees dealt with the fallout from the statue being toppled.
Within a week, a counter-demonstration was staged in Bristol, the police handling of the demonstration was criticised by Westminster politicians and the questions about what should happen next to the statue, the police investigation and prosecutions loomed large.
Also in that first fortnight, Mr Rees was interviewed by dozens of national and international media, including by more than 20 different BBC outlets, about the statue toppling.
Prof Olusoga is one of the executive producers for the programme.
It is understood that the programme makers spoke to people in Bristol from across the debate on Colston and the city’s slave trade legacy, and will follow the Mayor’s handling of the situation.
The programme may also reveal the behind-the-scenes conversations before and after the sculptor Marc Quinn placed a statue of Bristol activist Jen Reid on to the empty plinth of
Edward Colston’s statue, which was ordered be removed within 24 hours, as well as the discussions to set up the We Are Bristol History Commission.
“This dramatic action in Bristol thrust the city onto the global stage and put it at the forefront of last summer’s bitter culture wars,” said the BBC’s programme promotion.
“Caught in the eye of this storm was Bristol’s mayor Marvin Rees, the first directly elected mayor of Black African heritage of a major European city.
“Born and bred in Bristol and himself a descendant of enslaved people, how would he hold the city together in the face of rising tensions that threaten to explode into violent confrontation?” it added.
■ Statue Wars airs on BBC2 at 9pm on Thursday, June 10.