The Long Song

Just finished the series and while it was frustrating, painful and heartbreaking at times, it is well worth watching. It touches on so many issues that remain relevant today - colorist, the arrogance of privilege, the desire to escape racial boundaries, yet the risks that can come when things go wrong. I felt the series did a good job of showing the casual brutality and sadism of the slave system and the utter immorality of the whites who owned slaves. The story of July was frustrating because she was clearly clever, yet seemed utterly unaware of the duplicity of the whites around her, including her "husband" and master.

Despite these shortcomings I found it compelling and well acted. Several commuters have claimed the actress who played July was too dark to be of mixed race or be a house slave. Neither is true. It is not the case that all mixed race people are fair skinned or that all house slaves were fair skinned.

Not because it is true, as it isn't. Nor because such stories have not been told before, which they have. But because to forget the evils depicted would be to diminish ourselves.

A powerful and moving drama, which shows both the horrors of slavery, with casual cruelty borne of disregard for the human-ness of people of a different colour, and more unusually the on going torment faced by those newly freed. Highly recommended.

Many people see a show like this and immediately pick on small details about the times or actual history. Well this is fiction, most historical shows are because we don't what actually happened. If you want a story close to the truth watch the History Channel and as far as black and white goes watch something made in the 1950s.

I really enjoyed this mini series especially given that the Black cast spoke the Jamaican patois so well and hearing the original Jamaican folk songs added to the authenticity. Although Tamara Lawrence gave a great performance, I don't think she was the right person to play the role of July. In the book July is biracial. Tamara Lawrence is not a mixed race Black woman. Tamara Lawrence is a dark skinned Black woman with typically west African features and hair texture. As a Jamaican of mixed heritage I find this casting of Tamara problematic especially when we see that July is given an elevated status to the rest of the slaves. The casting of Tamara as July doesn't allow the audience to see colorism at play as it is more clear in the book. July is a mixed woman with typical "Eurocentric" features and for that reason she was favored by the mistress to be her house maid. History tells us that mixed race slaves were typically house slaves.

Adapted from a fictional novel about the before, during and after the abolition of slavery.

This lengthy saga was very successfully realised in this BBC drama. You sensed the author had conglomerated several lives to raise situations and issues that would sustain a long novel.

This sense of expanse played well and there was fine acting throughout. This was great Sunday night viewing and with the entertainment we learnt a great deal about some difficult truths about sugar production.