Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Remembering the amazing life of Olaudah Equiano
A BBC Radio 4 programme will mark the 225 anniversary of the death of the forgotten black British hero. MARC WADSWORTH produced it
Olaudah Equiano and Tayo Aluko who plays him in the BBC Radio 4 production [Olaudah Equiano: public domain]

ON TUESDAY afternoon (May 24), a new BBC radio docu-drama,  made by myself and fellow producer Deborah Hobson, will chart the life and times of a remarkable but forgotten black British hero, who died 225 years ago. The Amazing Life of Olaudah Equiano is being broadcast at 4pm on BBC Radio 4.

Sadly, programmes like this made by black independent production companies like ours, The-Latest Ltd, are rare. When I asked a Radio 4 executive commissioner if she knew of any others working with her history department she said a forlorn “no.”

It’s as if, in British broadcasting, the game-changing Black Lives Matter movement, spearheaded by radical youth demanding change, had never happened.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
bagot
Book Review / 23 July 2026
23 July 2026

PAUL DONOVAN is fascinated by the lives of Charles and Mary Bagot, and the insight this biography shines on the morals of pre-Victorian society

west indies
Books / 5 June 2026
5 June 2026

BOB NEWLAND appreciates an important contribution to the debate about how slavery helped to build the wealth of Western companies and states

crown silence
Books / 30 April 2026
30 April 2026

ELLIS RAE recommends a stunning history of the active role played by the British monarchy in establishing and profiting from slavery