Name 10 black actors. You’re right, that wasn’t fair. I did not state that this article would require audience participation. Now that you’re all settled and ready for this: name 5 black actors. They can be of stage or screen, male or female, alive or dead, young or old. Got ‘em? Good. Well, how many of them are British? Chances are, your list probably just got shorter.
The demographic of black British actors on primetime TV comes nowhere near as representative of the demographic of black British inhabitants in any city or indeed of Britain itself. Last week, Lenny Henry remarked upon how there were very few black or Asian faces at the BAFTAs. Henry himself has gradually retired from the screen, choosing to pursue a very successful career in theatre, performing as the titular character in 2009’s Othello at Leeds’ West Yorkshire Playhouse and as Antipholus of Ephesus in 2011’s The Comedy of Errors at the Royal National Theatre, aside from the odd spot of presenting for Comic Relief.
Without the necessary breakthrough to maintain presence in British films and TV programmes, it is no surprise that many black British actors have attained roles in entertainment overseas. Or even in theatre, which is astonishing for an art older than modern television. Idris Elba, star of award-winning 2010 crime-drama Luther, has almost exclusively worked for American productions (The Wire, The Big C, Prometheus, Thor) since. In a similar move to Lenny Henry, Adrian Lester, star of Bonekickers and Hustle, has also focussed exclusively on his stage career since 2010. David Harewood’s series-length role as David Estes in Homeland has made him more widely recognised for both UK and US audiences than anything he did prior to that. Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Naomie Harris, David Oyelowo, Thandie Newton, Sophie Okonedo – the list just embarrassingly goes on and on.
This is not to say that there are no decent black British actors left in Britain. Eastenders – so I am told – is the most ground-breaking British soap in its use of excellent black acting talent out of all TV soaps on screens today. But you have to be a strong swimmer through the never-ending torrent of American sitcoms on E4 to find any black British actors. With Winston played by Lamorne Morris in New Girl, Rocky played by NeNe Leakes in The New Normal, Turk played by Donald Faison in Scrubs, and Mercedes Jones played by Amber Riley in Glee, the US inundation is at least slightly dammed by the British comedy-drama series based in London, Youngers.
Will there ever be a rise in black British actors? The slow trickle shows no signs of stopping, despite audiences’ current love affair with period dramas set any time before the 1940s, such as Downton Abbey, and Cranford. It falls to another generation to permeate through, both in front and behind the cameras.
This seems like the beginning of a really decent article but it’s a bit too short. Why are there not many black actors? Go into the many reasons for this. Well written piece but needed to be more developed.
Does it matter what colour skin an actor/ess has? Surely talent is what should matter?
Given that 3.5% of the population (2011 Census) consider themselves to be black, it is not unusual for very few actors to be black in the UK.
Is it not dangerous to start classifying professionals by characteristics which have nothing to do with their job?