BARONESS DOREEN Lawrence is working with Coronation Street on a storyline that will shine a light on racism.
The narrative will explore the prejudice faced by the Bailey family, and highlight the generational divide in attitudes towards racism within the family.
The soap consulted with Baroness Lawrence throughout the creation of the episode, in which she acted as a script advisor and also visited the set to watch the scenes being filmed.
“I really believe that her input, and the contributions of the cast playing the Bailey family as we workshopped the scripts, have resulted in an episode with real weight and authenticity.”
Coronation Street producer
Coronation Street producer Iain MacLeod said it was a “huge privilege” to have Baroness Lawrence on board.
He said: “I really believe that her input, and the contributions of the cast playing the Bailey family as we workshopped the scripts, have resulted in an episode with real weight and authenticity”.
The episode was due to broadcast on Stephen Lawrence day last month, however was pushed back due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The storyline will now begin on May 18.
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It will see Ed (Trevor Michael Georges) repeatedly rise above racial comments made by new bistro manager Don, shocking his sons Michael (Ryan Russell) and James (Nathan Graham) who struggle to understand why he continually let the incidents slide.
Things come to a head at the opening party of the new restaurant when Ed decides to stand up to Don after he turns his sights to the rest of the Bailey family.
The storyline will also explore the effects of Don’s racial abuse have on Ed’s own prejudices against James’ sexuality.
Attitudes
MacLeod said it was interesting to explore the generational gap in the family’s attitudes towards racism.
He added: “The younger contingent think you should deal with it head on, and zero tolerance, where Ed and Aggie have a slightly more ‘keep your head held high and ignore it because you will never change these idiots’ minds, lads’ view.
“It’s about them exploring those generational differences between their approaches to racism, and then ultimately reconciling with each other’s points of view a little bit.”
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1 Comment
Baroness Lawrence’s family lost their precious son Stephan as a direct result of the naked exclusion and violence English Caucasian society directed openly against its African and Caribbean Heritage Subjects in the 1990s.
However, having heard Baroness Lawrence address an Oxford audience and heard to quality of her response: and noting that the Labour Party has recently asked Baroness Lawrence to address its bias against African-Caribbean heritage Labour Supporters. I do not welcome her role as a “consultant on racism” for Coronation Street.
Roles for African-Caribbean people on the BBC and ITV are distinctly weak and underdeveloped as Sir Lenny Henry made clear to the BBC’s Director-General Lord Hall in 2016.
However, it appears Baroness Lawrence is being used by the Labour Party and the Broadcast Media to tick their diversity quotas rather than address the real issue of racism and tokenism within British Broadcast dramas.