
Horace Ové
Directing
Biography
Born in Trinidad in 1939, Sir Horace Ové, CBE was a British director, writer and artist who emerged in the late '60s and throughout the '70s to become one of the leading UK based black independent film-makers. A fact notable for his Guinness World Record for being the first black British film-maker to direct a feature-length film, Pressure (1975). He was knighted in 2022 and passed away in 2023 following a battle with Alzheimer's.
Known For

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.
The Professionals

A white, plantation owning family in Dominica waits for the return of the patriarch from WWI, but things change when he does. Its focus on the declining power of the white plantocracy on the island of Dominica between the war years, handled through the prism of an intimate family drama, has great depth while remaining accessible. The series was shot in its entirety in Dominica.
The Orchid House

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

Showcasing three short films by American writer James Baldwin, wherein he muses about race, sexuality and civil rights, among other topics, in Istanbul, Paris and Great Britain.
James Baldwin Abroad

To mark the conclusion of their "Third World Week" celebration, a cricket team in a small English village invites a black cricket team from South London to a charity game with comical results.
Playing Away

"These Indian films. They're done to a formula - songs, dance, routines and a lot of sentimental heavy breathing." When her 17-year-old son Roy falls in love with a Muslim girl, and a Bangladeshi butcher seeks help from her husband Raji, Leela realises that the tears and romance of Indian cinema are closer to her own life than she has ever imagined.
The Garland

Marking Play for Today’s 50th anniversary, Drama Out of a Crisis is a compelling exploration of the series, its origins, achievements, controversies and legacies. Featuring a rich and surprising range of archive extracts and original interviews with many who created the series, including producers Kenith Trodd, Margaret Matheson and Richard Eyre, and directors Mike Leigh, David Hare and Ken Loach.
Drama Out of a Crisis: A Celebration of Play for Today

A young man looks back over his unhappy marriage and struggles to come to terms with his wife's suicide.
When Love Dies

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.
A Hole in Babylon

A two part documentary that details the contribution of black and Asian people to television history from the birth of television in 1936 to 1992. Interviewees include: Pearl Connor, Thomas Baptiste, Lenny Henry, Norman Beaton, Horace Ové, Carmen Munroe, and Stuart Hall.
Black and White in Colour

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.
Skateboard Kings

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

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.
Reggae
A crucial few hours in the life of a would-be London gangster
Stretch Hunter

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.
King Carnival

The Mangrove Nine trial resulted from conflict between the police and the Black community in Notting Hill that had escalated from the end of the 1960s onwards. The Mangrove case began when around 150 Black people protested against long-term police harassment of the popular Mangrove Restaurant in Ladbroke Grove. A documentary film, 'The Mangrove Nine' (directed and produced by Franco Rosso), was made in 1973, and includes interviews with the defendants recorded before the final verdicts. The Mangrove Nine film portrays interviews with the defendants recorded before the final verdicts were delivered at the trial, as well as contemporary comments from Ian Macdonald and others.