Sitting in Limbo (2020 film)

Last updated

Sitting in Limbo
Written byStephen S. Thompson
Directed byStella Corradi
Starring
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
Production
Running time86 minutes
Production company Left Bank Pictures
Original release
Network BBC One
Release8 June 2020 (2020-06-08)

Sitting in Limbo is a 2020 British factual drama television film about the Windrush scandal. [1] The story focuses on the real-life experiences of a Jamaican-born British man, Anthony Bryan, one of the victims of the UK Home Office hostile environment policy on immigration. [2] [3] Bryan had lived in the UK for 50 years when his life was upended as a result of the Home Office mistakenly classifying him as an illegal immigrant. [4]

Sitting in Limbo was written by Bryan's half-brother, novelist Stephen S. Thompson, [5] [6] and stars Patrick Robinson, [7] Nadine Marshall, Pippa Bennett-Warner, Jay Simpson and Sarah Woodward. [8] The film was broadcast on 8 June 2020 on BBC One. [9]

Jimmy Cliff's song "Sitting in Limbo", from his 1971 album Another Cycle , played over the closing credits.[ citation needed ]

As of October 2021, the film holds a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on eight reviews with an average rating of 8/10. [10]

The programme won the British Academy Television Award for Best Single Drama at the 2021 British Academy Television Awards. [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miranda Richardson</span> English actress (born 1958)

Miranda Jane Richardson is an English actress who has worked extensively in film, television and theatre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steve Coogan</span> English comedian and actor (born 1965)

Stephen John Coogan is a British-Irish comedian, actor and screenwriter. He is most known for creating original characters such as Alan Partridge, a socially inept and politically incorrect media personality, which he developed while working with Armando Iannucci on On the Hour and The Day Today. Partridge has featured in several television series and the 2013 film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa. In 1999, he co-founded the production company Baby Cow Productions with Henry Normal. For his work he has garnered numerous accolades including four BAFTA Awards and three British Comedy Awards as well as nominations for an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Macfadyen</span> English actor (born 1974)

David Matthew Macfadyen is an English actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he gained prominence for his role as Mr. Darcy in Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice (2005). He rose to international fame for his role as Tom Wambsgans in the HBO drama series Succession (2018–2023), for which he received two consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards, two BAFTA Television Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timothy Spall</span> English actor (born 1957)

Timothy Leonard Spall is an English actor and presenter. Spall gained recognition for his character actor roles on stage and screen. He is known for his collaborations with director Mike Leigh, acting in six of his films: Home Sweet Home (1982), Life is Sweet (1990), Secrets & Lies (1996), Topsy-Turvy (1999), All or Nothing (2002), and Mr. Turner (2014). He was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his role in Secrets and Lies, and received the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award for his portrayal of J. M. W. Turner in Mr. Turner. In 2000, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. He won the 2024 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, for his performance as Peter Farquhar in The Sixth Commandment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katherine Parkinson</span> British actress (born 1977/1978)

Katherine Parkinson is an English actress and comedian. She appeared in Channel 4's The IT Crowd comedy series as Jen Barber, for which she received a British Comedy Best TV Actress Award in 2009 and 2014, and was nominated twice for the BAFTA Television Award for Best Female Comedy Performance, winning in 2014. Parkinson studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and has appeared on stage in the plays The Seagull (2007), Cock (2009), and Home, I'm Darling (2018), for which she was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Play.

Antonia Jane Bird, FRSA was an English producer and director of television drama and feature films.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sally Wainwright</span> British television writer, producer and director

Sally Anne Wainwright is an English television writer, producer, and director. She is known for her dramas, which are often set in her native West Yorkshire, and feature "strong female characters". Wainwright has been praised for the quality of her dialogue.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Wilson</span> British actress

Ruth Wilson is an English actress. She has played the eponymous protagonist in Jane Eyre (2006), Alice Morgan in the BBC psychological crime drama Luther, Alison Lockhart in the Showtime drama The Affair (2014–2018), and the eponymous character in Mrs Wilson (2018). From 2019 to 2022, she portrayed Marisa Coulter in the BBC/HBO fantasy series His Dark Materials, and for this role she won the 2020 BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Actress. Her film credits include The Lone Ranger (2013), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016), and Dark River (2017).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanna White</span> British television and film director (born 1960)

Susanna White is a British television and film director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monica Dolan</span> English actress (born 1969)

Monica Margaret Dolan is an English actress. She won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing Rosemary West in Appropriate Adult (2011).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Pope</span> British television producer and screenwriter

Jeff Pope is a British television producer and screenwriter who co-wrote the film Pierrepoint and the television drama The Fattest Man in Britain and who won a BAFTA in 2006 for the drama See No Evil: The Moors Murders. He is also the Head of ITV Productions Factual Drama. Pope wrote the screenplay for the 2018 film Stan & Ollie, and co-wrote the 2022 film The Lost King.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Thorne</span> English screenwriter and playwright

Jack Thorne FRSL is a British playwright, television writer, screenwriter, and producer.

<i>A Very English Scandal</i> (TV series) British series about Jeremy Thorpe

A Very English Scandal is a British three-part comedy-drama television serial created and written by Russell T Davies, based on John Preston's 2016 book of the same name. It is a dramatisation of the 1976–1979 Jeremy Thorpe scandal and more than 15 years of events leading up to it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amelia Gentleman</span> British journalist (born 1972)

Amelia Sophie Gentleman is a British journalist. She is a reporter for The Guardian, and won the Paul Foot Award in 2018 for reporting the Windrush scandal.

The UK Home Office hostile environment policy is a set of administrative and legislative measures designed to make staying in the United Kingdom as difficult as possible for people without leave to remain, in the hope that they may "voluntarily leave". The Home Office policy was first announced in 2012 under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. The policy was widely seen as being part of a strategy of reducing UK immigration figures to the levels promised in the 2010 Conservative Party Election Manifesto.

The Windrush scandal was a British political scandal that began in 2018 concerning people who were wrongly detained, denied legal rights, threatened with deportation, and in at least 83 cases wrongly deported from the UK by the Home Office. Many of those affected had been born British subjects and had arrived in the UK before 1973, particularly from Caribbean countries, as members of the "Windrush generation".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sian Clifford</span> English actress (born 1982)

Sian Clifford is an English actress. She is best known for playing Claire, the older sister of the titular character in the BBC comedy-drama series Fleabag (2016–2019) and also portrayed Martha Crawley in the ITV/Amazon Studios series Vanity Fair (2018). In 2020, she played Diana Ingram in the ITV series Quiz.

Paulette Wilson was a British immigrant rights activist who fought her own deportation to Jamaica and brought media attention to the human rights violations of the Windrush scandal.

<i>Hostile</i> (2022 film) 2022 British political documentary

Hostile is a 2022 documentary film directed by Sonita Gale. The film explores the UK government's 'hostile environment' immigration policy, first articulated in 2012 under the Cameron administration. The film premiered on 29 October 2021 at the Raindance Film Festival.

References

  1. Brinkhurst-Cuff, Charlie (9 June 2020). "BBC One's intimate and important Windrush scandal drama Sitting in Limbo couldn't have been more timely". Radio Times. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  2. O'Grady, Sean (8 June 2020). "Sitting in Limbo, review: True story about Britain's brutal bureaucracy is harrowing to watch". The Independent. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  3. Gentleman, Amelia (12 June 2020). "The Windrush generation deserves justice – not video chats with the home secretary". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  4. Finnis, Alex (8 June 2020). "Sitting in Limbo cast: who stars with Patrick Robinson in the true story Windrush drama, and what time it's on BBC One". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  5. Moss, Stephen (15 June 2020). "'Sometimes you have to take liberties': the TV dramas ripped from the headlines". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 15 June 2020 via www.theguardian.com.
  6. "Telling my brother's Windrush scandal story". BBC News. 8 June 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  7. Ferguson, Euan (14 June 2020). "The week in TV: I May Destroy You; Sitting in Limbo; Staged; McMillions; Das Boot". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 15 June 2020 via www.theguardian.com.
  8. Craig, David (8 June 2020). "Meet the cast of BBC One Windrush drama Sitting in Limbo". Radio Times. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  9. Carr, Flora (8 June 2020). "When is the BBC's Windrush scandal drama Sitting in Limbo on TV?". Radio Times. Retrieved 15 June 2020.
  10. "Sitting in Limbo (2020)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango . Retrieved 30 October 2021.
  11. "BAFTA TV 2021: The Winners and Nominations for the Virgin Media British Academy Television Awards and British Academy Television Craft Awards". BAFTA. 28 April 2021. Retrieved 5 November 2023.