Academy Award-Winning Director Steve McQueen has made a deal with BBC One to create a new original series titled Uprising. The series will be directed by McQueen and James Rogan, and is described as “a vivid and visceral three-part series for BBC One examining three events from 1981 – in January, the New Cross Fire which killed 13 black teenagers; in March, Black People’s Day of Action, which saw more than 20,000 people join the first organised mass protest by black British people; and the Brixton riots in April. The series will reveal how these three events intertwined in 1981 and how, in the process, race relations were defined for a generation.”
McQueen, who will also executive produce, gave the following statement about the project:
“It is an honour to make these films with testimonials from the survivors, investigators, activists and representatives of the machinery of state. We can only learn if we look at things through the eyes of everyone concerned; the New Cross Fire passed into history as a tragic footnote, but that event and its aftermath can now be seen as momentous events in our nation’s history.”
This sounds like a gripping series that will enlighten many, and start more important conversations. Stay tuned for more details as they develop.