Horace Ové

A crucial few hours in the life of a would-be London gangster

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Three black men rob a Knightsbridge Italian restaurant. But when the police are called and the robbery becomes a siege, the men find themselves in a situation out of their control.

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Empire Road was a British television series, made by the BBC in 1978 and 1979. Written by Michael Abbensetts, the show ran for two seasons of eight episodes each. The series was the first British television series to be written, acted and directed predominantly by black artists. A soap opera, similar in format to Coronation Street, Empire Road depicted life for the African-Caribbean, East Indian and South Asian residents of a racially diverse street in the city of Birmingham. Prominent cast members included Norman Beaton, Corinne Skinner-Carter, Wayne Laryea, Joseph Marcell and Rudolph Walker. The programme also provided early TV exposure for Julie Walters who appeared in a few episodes. The series was made at BBC Pebble Mill with location work in the Handsworth area of Birmingham. The eponymously named theme song was recorded by Matumbi and also released as a single in 1978.

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If you’re young, male and you live in the city, how do you prove yourself in the most materially comfortable country on earth? How do you show courage, daring, skill, strength? How do you prove you’re a man? If you’re a Masai Tribesman in Africa you kill a lion. If you’re an Aborigine boy, you go on walkabout, if you live in Dogtown, Los Angeles you ride a skateboard.

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The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contentious, but they are the top men in their field, and the ones to whom Cowley always assigned to the toughest cases.

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A British-born younger son of an immigrant family from Trinidad finds himself adrift between two cultures.

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An in-depth look at Trinidad and Tobago's carnival through its turbulent history. African and East Indian rhthyms and rituals, combined with the European Mardi Gras celebration, have evolved into the spectacle of "mas" and music that erupts on the streets of Port of Spain on the two days preceding Lent.

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Full House was a live entertainment for Saturday, presenting a mixture of music, plays, poetry, prose, comedy, films, the visual arts - and a few surprises.

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BBC documentary focusing on a reggae concert held at Wembley Stadium in 1970 featuring the Pyramids, Pioneers, Black Faith, Millie, the Maytals, and Desmond Dekker. Includes interviews with DJ Mike Raven and producer Graham Goodall, who review the history and development of reggae.

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Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration.

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Weekly arts magazine

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James Baldwin and Dick Gregory discuss the Civil Rights Movement in 1960s Great Britain.

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A series of films from all over the world about our astonishing planet and the creatures that live on it. Combining natural history with an element of adventure, the series featured well-known naturalists such as Jane Goodall and Gerald Durrell, and the oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. Succeeded by The Natural World.

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