‘Guerilla’ examines race in 1970s London
We tend to think of racism and its related violence as something that afflicts only this country, but a drama series premiering tonight on Showtime shows how our neighbors across the pond struggle with it as well.
“Guerrilla,” a six-part limited series debuting at tonight at 9, shines the light on a little-known chapter in U.K. history, when Scotland Yard created the Black Power Desk, a truelife counter-intelligence unit within the Special Branch that was dedicated to thwarting the burgeoning black rights movement by any means necessary in 1970s London.
Set in an era of blatant racism, rampant nationalism and anti-establishment sentiment, the story focuses on Marcus (Babou Ceesay, “Getting On”) and Jas (Freida Pinto, “Slumdog Millionaire”), an idealistic young London couple with lives and careers, he as an educator and she as a nurse.
As the series opens, they get a front-row seat to police brutality when cops harass the interracial couple (Brandon Scott, Denise Gough) they’re out on the town with. As events unfold, their relationship and values are tested when they free a political prisoner (Nathaniel Martello-White, “Deadmeat”) and form a radical underground movement that targets the Black Power Desk. But what starts out as political activism takes a turn into militancy and eventually violence as the couple are hardened by their war with law enforcement.
The series is a passion project for creator/writer/ director John Ridley (an Oscar winner for “12 Years a Slave”), who executive produced it with Idris Elba (who also co-stars as Jas’ ex), Michael J. McDonald, Patrick Spence, Katie Swinden and Tracy Underwood.
“The differences between racism (in the U.S. and England) or, frankly, anywhere in the world ... at the most fundamental level, there is no difference,” Ridley said. “When people are being marginalized or disenfranchised, it really doesn’t matter if it’s about race, religion, creed, or color. ... Racism, disenfranchisement, it’s painful, it’s wrong wherever it is. But we as storytellers wanted to get more deeply into those differences and highlight those differences between the U.S. and the U.K.”
In Marcus, Ceesay found a soft-spoken man of reason who wants to do good but changes as events unfold.
“Fundamental to Marcus, I felt playing the character, is this desire not to harm people,” he said. “It isn’t lost on him the need to try and do something useful for the society that he lives in — the fact that he chooses to be a teacher, the prison reform movement, he’s an activist, all of those things. But despite the fact that there is the pressure from Jas ... and from Dhari, Nathaniel Martello-White’s character, fundamentally, Marcus has also experienced and witnessed certain things in that society that are radicalizing him. It’s just about what tool do you use.”
“Whenever you make a decision or take a decision to do something that is radical or drastic or that is unsuspected, there are consequences,” Pinto added, “and those consequences lead you to either stand up with conviction with what you’ve done and believe in it and then continue on that path — which means there will be further consequences — or you just back out and say, ‘I made a mistake, and I’m sorry. I surrender. I give in.’ But Jas and Marcus are not those people. They stand up very firmly for what they believe in. ... But I have a deep conviction that I need to continue doing this come what may, which leads to rage and violence.”