TV's Greatest: Black on the Box | Preview (Channel 5)

A look at how some of Britain’s best loved stars changed the face of British television forever when they became the first black faces to take their place on the small screen.

Shirley Bassey was the first to have her own primetime music series, Lenny Henry did the same in comedy. Don Warrington starred in a hit sitcom, Floella Benjamin and Diane-Louise Jordan became presenters of two of children’s TV’s iconic shows, Craig Charles’s career took him from stand up to Red Dwarf and Coronation Street, and Trevor McDonald and Moira Stuart were the first black newscasters. The programme celebrates these milestone achievements and examines their impact.

Love Thy Neighbour and Rising Damp were both hugely popular situation comedies in the 1970s, and the programme assesses how each show took opposing approaches to their central black characters.

In the 1980s, Lenny Henry broke through and became a major star in primetime comedy, paving the way for the breakout success of the all-black sitcom Desmond’s later in the decade. The programme revisits the laughs of Desmond’s with its creator and cast members, and remembers too at the ground breaking sketch show The Real McCoy which made stars of Meera Syal and Felix Dexter.

In television news, Trevor McDonald was ITN’s first black reporter in 1973, ultimately graduating to becoming sole anchor of News At Ten two decades later, while on the BBC Moira Stuart was the first black women to read a national bulletin. Both had a major impact on black journalists in subsequent decades, as the BBC’s Clive Myrie relates in the programme.

Featuring interviews with Sir Trevor McDonald, David Harewood, Diane-Louise Jordan, Craig Charles, Don Warrington, Clive Myrie, Judith Jacob, David Grant, Trix Worrell, Llewella Gideon, Nina Myskow and others, the programme is narrated by Angela Griffin.

TV's Greatest: Black on the Box airs Saturday 12th October at 10:30pm on Channel 5.