by Sir Lenny Henry -1 x 44′
While taking part in a celebrity ancestry TV show, Jack Braddock, a white actor in a globally popular TV hospital drama series, discovers that he is descended from a brutal 18th century plantation manager called Lachlan Braddock who was in the habit of issuing particularly vicious punishments to his enslaved workers. He also discovers that he is related to a family of Lachlan’s Black British descendants.
In a high risk PR exercise, he goes to lunch with the Birmingham Braddocks, Shelton, Delyce, Amelia and Glenroy. A comedy with a dead serious heart. Sir Lenny Henry is a celebrated comedian, actor, writer, and activist.
A pioneering figure in British comedy, Sir Lenny is the co-founder of Comic Relief and a committed campaigner for diversity in the media. Sir Lenny is the co-author of several books on the reparations issue with journalist and academic Marcus Ryder. This audio drama evolved out of a stage play written for their book of the same title. The accounts of the fictional Lachlan Braddock’s cruelty to his enslaved workers are taken from real accounts from Jamaican plantation owners – notably Thomas Thistlewood – and from accounts written by Baptist missionary Henry Blepy.
Cast
Jack ….. Oliver Chris
Dane ….. Richie Campbell
Delyce ….. Claire Benedict
Shelton ….. Roger Griffiths
Amelia ….. Amaka Okafor
Glenroy ….. Kascion Franklin
Annie ….. Felicity Montagu
Director, Driver, 1st AD ….. James Lailey
Sound by Peter Ringrose
Directed by Mary Peate
Produced by Jessica Dromgoole
A Hooley production for Radio 4