The begineer's guide to SMALL AXE
STEVE McQUEEN UNLEASHES HIS LONDON-SET ANTHOLOGY SERIES THIS SUNDAY. JOSH STEPHENSON ROUNDS UP THE FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
1 The five Small Axe films are unique and separate to each other Each of the five films – Mangrove; Lovers Rock; Red, White And Blue; Alex Wheatle; and Education – are set between the late 1960s and the mid-1980s and focus on an experience of London’s West Indian community. And films is the operative word – Steve McQueen doesn’t consider this a TV show.
‘These are films which happen to be on TV,’ he says. ‘That’s it. These are national stories and I wanted these stories to go through the bloodstream of the country.’
2 Some heavyweight talent is involved
Some big-name stars are involved with the series. John Boyega and Letitia Wright are the headline names but there are also Top Boy’s Micheal Ward and Shaun Parkes. Boyega, who plays Leroy Logan in Red, White And Blue, hopes the show will be enlightening for viewers.
‘It’s going to be a revelation and an education,’ he says. ‘It’s about representation for us as black British people and hopefully less Americans are going to ask us about drinking tea and eating crumpets.’
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The show tackles heavy themes – but there’s levity too
It would be easy to think Small Axe would be preachy. It isn’t. Lovers Rock, for example, is a sweet-natured love story destined to warm the heart on any winter’s night. ‘The story was real,’ says Micheal Ward, star of Lovers Rock. ‘When I read the script, it didn’t feel forced, it didn’t feel like we were trying to hold people and tell them to listen, we were having fun. We had fun back then. We have fun now.
And that’s what we wanted to communicate.’
4 Music plays a key part in the series’ identity
Each of the five films has a killer soundtrack – something McQueen was keen to highlight from the start.
‘Music is the fuel of these five films,’ says McQueen. ‘It’s where black people go for refuge. To keep sane. Black people and West Indian people live for the weekend because they put up with so much racism during the week. They live to be at the blues because that’s where they could be who they wanted to be and expel all the weight of the world.’ As for the song that was always destined to feature? Silly Games by Janet Kay.
5 The show is a document of a history often untold
Sharlene Whyte, who stars in Education, says the show has inspired her to tell more stories about her heritage.
‘We have such a rich history and, culturally, West Indian people and people of the African diaspora are oral historians – we pass these stories by telling them rather than writing them and filming them,’ says Whyte. ‘It is nice to have something for future generations to look back on and see that history on screen.’
Small Axe begins this Sunday on BBC1, with Mangrove, then runs subsequent Sundays