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  In a rare moment of levity in Steve McQueen's third 'Small Axe' film, John Boyega's Leroy Logam announces his intention to join the force. "Like the Jedi or something?" his cousin Tyrone Huntley's Lee says, in a cheeky, knowing reference to Boyega's recent appearance in the  last 'Star Wars' trilogy. The force, of course, that Leroy is referring to is London's Metropolitan Police. And the decision is unpopular with his father, Steve Toussaint's Ken and most of the Carribbean community. After the lighter tone of last week's  'Small Axe: Lovers Rock ,' McQueen and co-writer Courttia Newland returned to the darker territory of the first film in the anthology  'Small Axe: Mangrove' . However this time the focus wasn't solely on the victims of institutional police racism. Instead the spotlight was mostly on the experience of racism from within the force. The real life Logan is a founding member and former chair of t

  When JD Vance's memoir 'Hillbilly Elegy' soared to the top of the New York Times' bestseller list in 2016, the year of Donald Trump's election, it sparked a fevered debate. To some, it was a fascinating and provocative exploration of the community that embraced Trump. To others, it whitewashed racist undercurrents among that white working class. Vance, a Republican, was very alive to the racial sensitivities around his book and its focus on the opioid crisis in working class white homes. Aware that his book was being praised for shining a light on the Scotch Irish working class voters who drawn to Trump after eight years under Barack Obama's Presidency, he  told the Guardian newspaper : "Obama strikes at the heart of our deepest insecurities." "I think that Obama is everything that the American meritocracy values at a time when a lot of us feel like the American meritocracy doesn't value very much about us at all. "It is just sort of li

  In a year when quality TV has provided a crutch for most of us during the Coronavirus pandemic, there has been some outstanding individual episodes in some of 2020's best dramas. But if you were to create a shortlist of five of the best this year, then surely the climactic episode of 'The Queen's Gambit' would have to be among them? This unlikely hit series about a chess prodigy has become Netflix's most watched limited series in the space of 28 days, with a staggering 62 million households downloading it across the world. As their leaders grapple with the restrictions that Covid-19 has imposed on citizens and their societies, viewers in 63 countries have streamed the miniseries and made it their top Netflix show. The show has also sparked fresh interest in the game of chess. Adapted by screenwriter and director Scott Frank from the 1983 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis, the seven episode miniseries begins with a scene of great tragedy. At the age of five, A

Steve McQueen's second 'Small Axe' film for the BBC and Amazon Prime had little dialogue. But that shouldn't matter because 'Lovers Rock' was all about the experience. McQueen's film took his audience deep into the heart and soul of an underground blues party in West London in the early 1980s. It was a chance to join young people from the Carribbean as they let their hair down. Unlike  'Small Axe: Mangrove'  racial struggle wad not to the fore. However the sense of community was just as strong. This was more about music as a quasi-religious experience, as its characters worshiped the pounding bass of reggae. It was an escape from the humdrum of work and the harsh racist realities of a London where, in one scene, white boys tried to wind up a black girl on the street by making monkey noises. Written by McQueen and Courttia Newland, 'Lovers Rock' focussed on a 17th birthday party for Ellis George's Cynthia. Shabier Kirchner's camera plu

  It would have been some coup for the BBC and Amazon Prime to land director Steve McQueen for just one TV movie. However, landing him for five is just mind blowing. The Turner Prize winner and acclaimed director of 'Hunger,' ' Shame ' ' Twelve Years A Slave ' and 'Widows' is one of the finest filmmakers of his generation. Not only has he brought compelling and morally complex movies to the big screen but he has consistently shown a willingness to push the boundaries of visual storytelling in his work. But he also draws out exceptional performances from his casts - especially from the likes of Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Stuart Graham, Carey Mulligan, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita N'Yongo, Paul Dano, Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki and Daniel Kaluuya. McQueen has directed five one-off films for the BBC and Amazon Prime, banded together in an anthology known as 'Small Axe' - a reference to the Bob Marley song of the same name containing the