''King of the Ghetto'' is a 1986

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

four-part

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

miniseries A miniseries or mini-series is a television series that tells a story in a predetermined, limited number of episodes. "Limited series" is another more recent US term which is sometimes used interchangeably. , the popularity of miniseries format h ...

which was aired on

BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

, it was directed and written by

Farrukh Dhondy Farrukh Dhondy (born 1944) is an Indian-born British writer, playwright, screenwriter and left-wing activist who resides in the United Kingdom. Education Dhondy was born in 1944 in Poona, India, where he attended The Bishop's School, and obtai ...

, and stars

Tim Roth Timothy Simon Roth (born 14 May 1961) is an English actor and producer. He began acting on films and television series in the 1980s. He was among a group of prominent British actors of the era, the "Brit Pack (actors), Brit Pack". He made hi ...

. The drama is about racial tensions in the

East End of London The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

in the 1980s.

Overview

Set in and around

Brick Lane Brick Lane (Bengali: ব্রিক লেন) is a street in the East End of London, in the borough of Tower Hamlets. It runs from Swanfield Street in Bethnal Green in the north, crosses the Bethnal Green Road before reaching the busiest ...

, white Matthew Long (

) mobilises his

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

neighbours around a squatting campaign in defiance of the

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

-run council. Also, young Bengali vigilantes patrol the streets against National Front skinheads and white liberal Sadie Deedes (

Gwyneth Strong Gwyneth Strong (born 2 December 1959) is an English actress. She has appeared in ''Shadows'' (1975), ''Angels'' (1976), ''Crown Court'' and ''Z-Cars'' (1977), ''Play for Today'' (1980-1984), ''Silent Witness'' (1996). However, she is best known fo ...

) argues for an Islamic school. Meanwhile, Bangladeshi businessman Timur Hussein (

Zia Mohyeddin Zia Mohyeddin (; born 20 June 1931) is a British-Pakistani actor, producer, director and television broadcaster who has appeared in both Pakistani cinema and television as well as in British cinema and television throughout his career. Zia M ...

) accumulates wealth and power by trading profitably with local politicians, criminals and police officers simultaneously.

Cast

as Matthew Long *

as Timur Hussein *

as Sadie Deedes *

Ian Dury Ian Robins Dury (12 May 1942 27 March 2000) was a British singer, songwriter and actor who rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and new wave era of rock music. He was the lead singer and lyricist of Ian Dury and the Blockheads an ...

as Sammy *Ajay Kumar as Raja *Dinesh Shukia as Saliq Miah *

Aftab Sachak Aftab Sachak (born 16 July 1952) is an African British actor. He went to an English public school before studying acting. He made his television debut in ''King of the Ghetto'' in 1986 and played the serious minded shop keeper, Ashraf Karim, ...

as Riaz Miah *Shelley King as Nasreen Begum *Paul Anil as Jamal Ullah

Episodes

Reception

In 2014, Dave Hill of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' said, "In ''King of the Ghetto'' we see the unfolding of a grassroots struggle... Thirty years on, some things have changed, some have not, but the big themes explored in Dhondy's drama survive."

References

External links