The Riviera

Season 1 SABC2 (*192) 19:30 Drama (See sidebar) Episode 10 Principal Fielies is furious when Riana conducts a fake wedding at school between two boys.

Season 1 SABC2 (*192) 19:30 Drama

Riana’s (Kelly Damon) church- going, loving gran Ma B (Margie Pankhurst), aka Blanche Brown, is a proud and upstanding member of the Lotus River community in the Cape Flats in retro ’80s dramedy series The Riviera (2020). Forced by apartheid racial segregation laws to choose between splitting her family because of the Group Areas act and defying the law to stand by her mixedrace daughter Liz (Chantal Herman), Ma B ignored the government and chose love over privilege. “Family is important,” says Margie.

Margie remembers the 1980s clearly. “In the late ’80s I was in my 20s. I was in Joburg working at the SABC dubbing department, and I remember, ‘uproar’ is the word in my head for that time,” she says. “When the family watches the news, for Ma B that feels significant and I can relate to that aspect of her. The bad guys (whites) she’s watching are her people, doing horrible things to her people (non-whites)! How does she place herself in relation to that?” asks Margie. “I still live with knowing that life.”

But talking about the past helped Margie bond with the cast who play her grandchildren. “They’re such wonderful young people. With Abdul Abrahams, who plays Reza, it took a bit longer. We had such an interesting conversation. He grilled me on apartheid: ‘Were you alive then?

Did you live in a mansion?’ It was interesting to see how they interpret what we lived through,” she says.