Uprising is a three-part documentary series made for the BBC by Steve McQueen and James Rogan. The series is about the tragedy and aftermath of events in 1981 which it argues would go on to define race relations in the United Kingdom for a generation. [1] [2] In May 2022, Uprising won a television BAFTA for Factual Series. [3]
No. | Title | Directed by | Original air date [4] | U.K viewers (millions) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Fire" | Steve McQueen & James Rogan | 20 July 2021 | N/A | |
Examines the New Cross house fire, which took the lives of 13 black teenagers in January 1981. | |||||
2 | "Blame" | Steve McQueen & James Rogan | 21 July 2021 | N/A | |
Examines the day in March 1981, Black People's Day of Action, which saw more than 20,000 people join the first organised mass protest by black British people. | |||||
3 | "The Front Line" | Steve McQueen & James Rogan | 22 July 2021 | N/A | |
Examines the April 1981 Brixton riot. |
The series was broadcast in the United Kingdom across three consecutive days on BBC One at 9pm from 20 July 2021. [5]
The series received a Blu-Ray release by The Criterion Collection on April 25, 2023, partnered with McQueen's Small Axe series. The release includes Uprising, the five Small Axe films, plus interviews and conversations with director Steve McQueen and cast/crew members, trailers, and an essay by Ashley Clark. [6]
The Financial Times called it a "powerful oral history of a disaster whose repercussions have echoed down to Grenfell and beyond." [7] Uprising won the 2022 television BAFTA in the Factual Series category. [8]
Sir Steve Rodney McQueen is a British film director, film producer, screenwriter, and video artist. For services to the visual arts, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2011. In 2014, he was included in Time magazine's annual Time 100 list of the "most influential people in the world". He has received an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and in 2016 the BFI Fellowship.
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The New Cross house fire was a fire that occurred during a party at a house in New Cross, south-east London, in the early hours of Sunday, 18 January 1981. The blaze killed 13 young black people aged between 14 and 22, and one survivor killed himself two years later.
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