TV Tonight: David Harewood on Blackface
What to Watch Tonight: At its peak, The Black And White Minstrel Show was watched by a Saturday night BBC TV audience of more than 20 million people. Tonight, at 9pm on BBC Four, David Harewood looks into the history of the programme.
In this new documentary, David goes on a mission to understand the roots of this strange, intensely problematic, cultural form: where did the show come from, and what made it popular for so long?
Originating in the southern United States in the days of slavery, minstrelsy came from an African-American musical tradition but was transformed into a form of racist mockery, its language and themes deliberately lampooning Black people.
With the help of historians, actors and musicians, David Harewood uncovers how, at its core, Blackface minstrelsy was racism made literally into an art form and can be traced back to a name and a date, its cast of stereotyped characters consciously created by American performer Thomas D Rice and brought to the UK in the 1830s.
It caught on and until only a few decades ago it was still one of the most popular forms of entertainment - on stage, in the streets, and on the big and small screen.
David looks at the effect that The Black And White Minstrel Show had on his own career and that of fellow actors - and considers the deeper psychological impact it had on his own and others’ sense of identity.
