0:00:08 > 0:00:12Cambridgeshire, and a quintessentially English village.
0:00:12 > 0:00:16I'm here to tell the story of a boy born back in 1946.
0:00:16 > 0:00:20He was a little different to the others, a mass of curly black hair.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28That baby was the result of a love affair
0:00:28 > 0:00:32between a white mother and a black American GI,
0:00:32 > 0:00:37one of almost a thousand or so born during the War and just after.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40In Britain, they were called "war casualties",
0:00:40 > 0:00:44in America "the offspring of the scum of the British Isles".
0:00:44 > 0:00:47Well, I'm on my way to meet that baby now.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51Of course, he's in his sixties and his name is Tony Martin.
0:00:51 > 0:00:55To me, he's never been a statistic, he's never been a victim.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59He's simply the man who married my sister.
0:00:59 > 0:01:01He's my brother-in-law.
0:01:04 > 0:01:06Hi, George!
0:01:07 > 0:01:09Seeing him now, you'd never have guessed it,
0:01:09 > 0:01:12but like so many other mixed-race war babies,
0:01:12 > 0:01:16Tony was put into care by his unmarried mother.
0:01:16 > 0:01:21I met my real mother when I was nine, I think. She came to see me.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24And I think she asked me if I wanted to go back and live with her,
0:01:24 > 0:01:28and, well, I said no, I was happy where I was.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32I felt a little sad, I think, you know...
0:01:32 > 0:01:36sorry for her that she'd come back for me,
0:01:36 > 0:01:40but I felt...where I was was fine.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47The Second World War turned lives upside down.
0:01:47 > 0:01:52People from different races worked together and played together.
0:01:52 > 0:01:57Building this history of mixed-race Britain, the young found forbidden love
0:01:57 > 0:02:00and the old...well, they just couldn't understand it.
0:02:00 > 0:02:04I do remember my father saying,
0:02:04 > 0:02:08"Now you've taken up with this black man,
0:02:08 > 0:02:15"you will never get a decent boyfriend. Never".
0:02:15 > 0:02:20The decades after the War saw society go from official contempt...
0:02:20 > 0:02:23The black man has a different set of standards,
0:02:23 > 0:02:25values, morals and principles.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28In many cases, their grandfathers were eating each other.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30..to grudging acceptance.
0:02:30 > 0:02:33I'm not racial, I'm not prejudiced of any kind.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37But I wouldn't let my children inter-marry.
0:02:38 > 0:02:42Through it all, love across the racial divide would prevail.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45To me, it was just wonderful meeting all these different people.
0:02:45 > 0:02:49I thought they were beautiful looking, cos I always loved
0:02:49 > 0:02:52people with dark skin. They're so attractive and they look so healthy.
0:02:52 > 0:02:57I thought I had won the jackpot, I really did.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02It was like a new day in my life,
0:03:02 > 0:03:06something that I've been looking for and I think I've clinched it.
0:03:08 > 0:03:12In the decades after the War, mass immigration meant
0:03:12 > 0:03:15Britain would never look the same again.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18Mixed-race families were appearing all over the country,
0:03:18 > 0:03:22no longer just confined to their little enclaves in port cities.
0:03:22 > 0:03:23Behind them, of course,
0:03:23 > 0:03:26lay the discredited pseudo-science of racial difference
0:03:26 > 0:03:31but ahead of them an almighty battle to be treated like anyone else,
0:03:31 > 0:03:35with the freedom to meet, to fall in love and live life to the full.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37From the workplace to the big screen,
0:03:37 > 0:03:41the '50s and '60s would see the colouring of a nation.
0:03:50 > 0:03:53- NEWSREEL:- From the four corners of the earth they come,
0:03:53 > 0:03:57men from the British Empire, upon which the sun never sets.
0:03:57 > 0:03:58African troops of the desert lands
0:03:58 > 0:04:03are in the front line in the defence of democracy.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06Black men fighting and dying for the cause -
0:04:06 > 0:04:10what better way to show how different we were to the Nazis?
0:04:10 > 0:04:12They are not conscripts but volunteers
0:04:12 > 0:04:16who have found the Union Jack worth living under and fighting for.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19What about back home?
0:04:19 > 0:04:21Britain's small mixed-race population
0:04:21 > 0:04:24was keen to do its bit for Britain.
0:04:26 > 0:04:29But what many mixed-race people discovered
0:04:29 > 0:04:33was that being born in Britain or even having a British mother
0:04:33 > 0:04:37didn't necessarily qualify them to serve their country.
0:04:43 > 0:04:47In 1939, a 22-year-old mixed-race man
0:04:47 > 0:04:50made his way to an office in Whitehall.
0:04:50 > 0:04:51He'd come to be interviewed
0:04:51 > 0:04:55by a recruiting officer from the British Army.
0:04:56 > 0:05:00Charles Arundel Moody, loyal to king and country,
0:05:00 > 0:05:03thought of himself as perfect officer material.
0:05:03 > 0:05:06He wasn't prepared for what happened next.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09The recruiting officer told him, "You may have been born in Britain,
0:05:09 > 0:05:11"but we can't make you a British officer,
0:05:11 > 0:05:15"because you're not of pure European descent."
0:05:15 > 0:05:18It was like waving a red rag at a bull.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27Charles Moody wasn't a man to take no for an answer,
0:05:27 > 0:05:31and neither was his father, Dr Harold Moody,
0:05:31 > 0:05:36a Jamaican-born GP who'd married a white English nurse, Olive, in 1913.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42In 1931, he'd set up the League of Coloured Peoples,
0:05:42 > 0:05:45Britain's first black pressure group.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54So when he heard about his son's rejection,
0:05:54 > 0:05:56a furious Moody immediately contacted
0:05:56 > 0:06:00the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Malcolm MacDonald.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03"If the colour bar is not broken down now,
0:06:03 > 0:06:05"it will break down the Empire,"
0:06:05 > 0:06:08he explained in no uncertain terms.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10"We're proud of our heritage
0:06:10 > 0:06:12"and do not want to be subjected to any experience
0:06:12 > 0:06:18"which will rob us of that pride or which will cast a slur thereupon."
0:06:21 > 0:06:25After weeks of lobbying and letter writing, Moody got what he wanted.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27At least for the duration of the War,
0:06:27 > 0:06:32the Government scrapped the clause in the 1914 Manual of Military Law
0:06:32 > 0:06:36which barred people of colour from becoming commissioned officers.
0:06:36 > 0:06:41So in 1940, Charles Moody was finally accepted as an officer
0:06:41 > 0:06:42in the Royal West Kent Regiment,
0:06:42 > 0:06:45the first mixed-race Briton
0:06:45 > 0:06:48to achieve this rank during World War Two.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53Recruits from the Empire didn't just fight overseas.
0:06:53 > 0:06:56Many were stationed here in Britain.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01While serving in the RAF, Jake Jacobs from Trinidad
0:07:01 > 0:07:06met and fell in love with Mary, a young Jewish girl from Liverpool.
0:07:06 > 0:07:10Jake was one of more than 6,000 black servicemen from the Colonies
0:07:10 > 0:07:12who came here.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18They were here to help in the war effort, but they did much more.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Their presence transformed Britain forever.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25These young, uniformed men set hearts a-flutter.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27Mary remembers what it was like.
0:07:28 > 0:07:35Well, it was exciting, because we hadn't seen anybody like that before.
0:07:35 > 0:07:39I'd never had close contact with anybody of a different colour.
0:07:39 > 0:07:44They were very different from the local boys that we'd seen,
0:07:44 > 0:07:47and we were interested to get to know them better.
0:07:47 > 0:07:51They were young. They were quite dashing, really.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55- Royal Air Force - of course we were dashing!- The RAF?- The RAF!
0:07:55 > 0:07:59So, Jake, just describe for me, what were your first impressions
0:07:59 > 0:08:01of this woman you would end up living with?
0:08:01 > 0:08:04Jet-black hair...
0:08:04 > 0:08:06tanned face...
0:08:06 > 0:08:08and beautiful eyes.
0:08:08 > 0:08:12What else more could you wish for?
0:08:12 > 0:08:17He sort of was more friendly with me than the others were.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22- I used to quote Shakespeare. - You used to quote Shakespeare? Wow!
0:08:22 > 0:08:26That really got me, because I love Shakespeare.
0:08:26 > 0:08:28Just think of it - here's a man,
0:08:28 > 0:08:31he's dashing, he's in a uniform and he quotes Shakespeare,
0:08:31 > 0:08:34- It's enough to turn any girl's head!- Yes!
0:08:36 > 0:08:40Love affairs like theirs were still relatively rare,
0:08:40 > 0:08:45but that changed when our American allies arrived in 1942.
0:08:45 > 0:08:49Many more of these mixed-race romances blossomed.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53These images of black GIs dancing with English girls
0:08:53 > 0:08:55so alarmed the American government
0:08:55 > 0:09:00it deemed them "material calculated to unduly inflame racial prejudice".
0:09:01 > 0:09:03The publication of any photographs
0:09:03 > 0:09:07conveying what was described as "boyfriend-girlfriend implications"
0:09:07 > 0:09:09were subsequently banned.
0:09:09 > 0:09:11And no wonder - back in the US,
0:09:11 > 0:09:15mixed-race marriages were illegal in two thirds of the states.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20No such laws existed in Britain,
0:09:20 > 0:09:23but here, too, the arrival of black Americans en masse
0:09:23 > 0:09:27began to cause concern in some quarters.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30Over 100,000 African-American servicemen
0:09:30 > 0:09:32were stationed all over the country.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37- NEWSREEL:- Anything new in the way of drill is news nowadays,
0:09:37 > 0:09:41and a company of coloured troops in Kettering give the town quite a show
0:09:41 > 0:09:44every time they march through on their way to chow.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47For many Britons living in villages and market towns,
0:09:47 > 0:09:50it was the first time they'd ever seen a black face.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52And for some, it caused panic.
0:09:58 > 0:10:03Take Mrs May, for example, a vicar's wife from Weston-super-Mare.
0:10:03 > 0:10:05According to an article in the Sunday Pictorial,
0:10:05 > 0:10:10the minute she heard that black American troops had reached her husband's parish,
0:10:10 > 0:10:14she called an emergency meeting of the WI to advise local women
0:10:14 > 0:10:18about how they should behave towards the black Americans.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20Just listen to what she had to say.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22"Move if seated next to them in the cinema,
0:10:22 > 0:10:24"cross the road to avoid them,
0:10:24 > 0:10:27"have no social relationship,
0:10:27 > 0:10:30"and under no account must coloured troops be invited
0:10:30 > 0:10:31"into the homes of white women."
0:10:34 > 0:10:38Unfortunately for the Mrs Mays of this world,
0:10:38 > 0:10:41more and more young women were choosing to ignore her advice.
0:10:41 > 0:10:45They not only invited black GIs into their homes
0:10:45 > 0:10:47but also into their beds.
0:10:48 > 0:10:49And now it wasn't only
0:10:49 > 0:10:55the self-appointed guardians of British morality that were alarmed.
0:10:55 > 0:10:59In Parliament, the Conservative MP Maurice Petherick
0:10:59 > 0:11:02warned the Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05that "The blackamoors consorting with white girls
0:11:05 > 0:11:10"will result in a number of half-caste babies when they're gone,
0:11:10 > 0:11:13"a bad thing for any country."
0:11:15 > 0:11:18But in dance halls up and down the country,
0:11:18 > 0:11:20British women made their own choices.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26My mother always had a real liking for dancing,
0:11:26 > 0:11:29and she would go to the Grafton dance hall,
0:11:29 > 0:11:33and that's where my mother and father met each other.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37She obviously took a liking to my father.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40I mean, he was a very handsome fellow.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43I honestly think, looking back,
0:11:43 > 0:11:46that she was in love with my father.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53# Oh, give me land, lots of land
0:11:53 > 0:11:58# Under starry skies Don't fence me in... #
0:11:58 > 0:12:02The black GIs had been in Britain for three years when the War ended.
0:12:02 > 0:12:04When it was time for them to leave,
0:12:04 > 0:12:06many of their girlfriends were distraught.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10# Don't fence me in... #
0:12:10 > 0:12:14Early in the morning on August 26th 1945,
0:12:14 > 0:12:17a bunch of screaming girls descended on a barracks in Bristol
0:12:17 > 0:12:22where black American GIs were preparing to go home.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26Singing the Bing Crosby hit Don't Fence Me In,
0:12:26 > 0:12:27they clamoured at the gates.
0:12:27 > 0:12:30Eventually, a fence was broken in
0:12:30 > 0:12:35and they ran into the arms of their departing sweethearts.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37"To hell with your US Army colour bar,"
0:12:37 > 0:12:40a plucky 18-year-old was quoted as saying.
0:12:40 > 0:12:43"We're going to give our sweeties a good send-off she said,
0:12:43 > 0:12:47"and what's more, we're going to go with them to America."
0:12:49 > 0:12:53BING CROSBY: # I want to ride to the ridge
0:12:53 > 0:12:55# Where the West commences... #
0:12:55 > 0:12:58Sadly, this was rarely the case.
0:12:58 > 0:13:02GIs had to get the approval of the US Army to marry,
0:13:02 > 0:13:04and permission was usually denied
0:13:04 > 0:13:07because of America's attitude to mixed-race marriages.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11# Don't fence me in
0:13:11 > 0:13:14# Papa, don't you fence me in. #
0:13:15 > 0:13:20And it wasn't just heartbroken girlfriends they left behind.
0:13:21 > 0:13:26About 1,000 mixed-race babies were now fatherless.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30Those earlier warnings about black GIs leaving babies behind
0:13:30 > 0:13:31had become a reality.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37A concerned Harold Moody sponsored a survey
0:13:37 > 0:13:39through his League of Coloured Peoples
0:13:39 > 0:13:40to assess the scale
0:13:40 > 0:13:43of the "brown baby problem", as it came to be known.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49Of the 184 women interviewed,
0:13:49 > 0:13:53nearly half had been unfaithful to their British husbands.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59The stigma of having brown babies,
0:13:59 > 0:14:01plus the fact that they were illegitimate,
0:14:01 > 0:14:04turned many of these women into social pariahs.
0:14:04 > 0:14:08"I'm shunned by the whole village," wrote one desperate mother.
0:14:08 > 0:14:13"The inspector for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
0:14:13 > 0:14:16"has told my friend to keep her children away from my house,
0:14:16 > 0:14:20"as didn't she know I had two illegitimate coloured children?"
0:14:20 > 0:14:25So for many of these women, and it didn't matter whether they were married or single,
0:14:25 > 0:14:29hanging on to their brown babies in the face of widespread disapproval
0:14:29 > 0:14:31was just too difficult.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34A shocking number ended up in care.
0:14:37 > 0:14:42My mother Sheila had me when she was only 16 years of age,
0:14:42 > 0:14:47and the fact that she was from a strict Catholic family
0:14:47 > 0:14:52and then of course the fact that she had a baby out of wedlock,
0:14:52 > 0:14:54it didn't go down very well.
0:14:56 > 0:15:00Shortly after he was born in Liverpool in 1944,
0:15:00 > 0:15:02Brian was put into care by his mother.
0:15:04 > 0:15:08I think she had this deep-rooted...
0:15:08 > 0:15:11conscience about it and never been able to forgive herself.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15But I've never been able to blame her, because she was so young.
0:15:15 > 0:15:20The thing would have been taken out of her hand by her parents, really.
0:15:22 > 0:15:23Brian's mother took him
0:15:23 > 0:15:28to one of the few places open to babies like him at the time.
0:15:29 > 0:15:33Sheila was just one of hundreds of desperate mothers
0:15:33 > 0:15:36who came knocking on the door of the African Churches Mission
0:15:36 > 0:15:38here in Liverpool.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40It was actually opened back in 1931
0:15:40 > 0:15:44to help African seamen who'd fallen on hard times,
0:15:44 > 0:15:48but within a few years it was turned into an unofficial care home
0:15:48 > 0:15:51for abandoned mixed-race children.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54Now, the building itself is long gone,
0:15:54 > 0:15:57but memories of the place and the extraordinary man who ran it
0:15:57 > 0:16:00are still vivid for many of those who passed through it.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06The minister of the mission, Daniels Ekarte,
0:16:06 > 0:16:09to me, he was my idol.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12He had this African smile.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14Once he smiled at you,
0:16:14 > 0:16:17you could do anything for him.
0:16:17 > 0:16:21It really...motivated you to behave.
0:16:21 > 0:16:26Ebony was a very famous magazine for black people in America,
0:16:26 > 0:16:29and they did a feature on the home, didn't they?
0:16:29 > 0:16:31Yes, they came to the home.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33This is Mrs Roberts here.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35- She was the housekeeper.- Yes.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38- And this is me in the other bed. - Oh, in bed!- Yeah.
0:16:38 > 0:16:42- This is quite a normal scene, like a mum putting a kid to bed.- Yes.
0:16:42 > 0:16:44So, where are you in this?
0:16:44 > 0:16:48Well, this is obviously teatime, and I'm just here.
0:16:48 > 0:16:50The cup is nearly as big as my face!
0:16:50 > 0:16:52- GEORGE CHUCKLES - You were tiny!
0:16:52 > 0:16:53I was very tiny, yes.
0:16:53 > 0:16:56When you have a look at that picture,
0:16:56 > 0:16:57what goes through your mind now?
0:16:57 > 0:16:59When I first saw these pictures,
0:16:59 > 0:17:02I cried,
0:17:02 > 0:17:05for the simple reason that I saw
0:17:05 > 0:17:09how vulnerable I was as a child.
0:17:09 > 0:17:13And I never really perceived
0:17:13 > 0:17:16how small and little I was.
0:17:20 > 0:17:25Pastor Daniels undoubtedly did an enormous amount of good.
0:17:25 > 0:17:27But, as the Ebony article made clear,
0:17:27 > 0:17:30he simply did not have the money or resources
0:17:30 > 0:17:32to take in all those on his waiting list.
0:17:34 > 0:17:38The Ebony article really got to the heart of the problem.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40What was to be done with the large number
0:17:40 > 0:17:43of what it called "brown babies in care"?
0:17:43 > 0:17:46Who'd be responsible for them? Who'd pay for them?
0:17:46 > 0:17:48It would be, as the writer said,
0:17:48 > 0:17:51"a crucial test of Britain's racial liberalism".
0:17:54 > 0:17:57Harold Moody argued that they should be treated as "war casualties"
0:17:57 > 0:18:00whose care should be jointly funded
0:18:00 > 0:18:04by the British and American governments.
0:18:04 > 0:18:06Send them to the States
0:18:06 > 0:18:11to live with their black fathers or other black families, said others.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16But America didn't want its mixed-race war babies.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19A Republican Congressman at the time, one John E Rankin,
0:18:19 > 0:18:23described them as "the offspring of the scum of the British Isles".
0:18:23 > 0:18:26You've got to remember, America had race laws at the time.
0:18:26 > 0:18:29So any thought of shipping these children across the Atlantic
0:18:29 > 0:18:34had to be shelved because of what the Home Office itself described as
0:18:34 > 0:18:37America's "appalling discrimination".
0:18:37 > 0:18:41No, this was a problem that Britain would have to deal with by itself.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49In the early hours of June 3rd 1949,
0:18:49 > 0:18:53local authority health officials, accompanied by the police,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56descended on the African Churches Mission.
0:18:56 > 0:18:59KNOCKING ON DOOR
0:18:59 > 0:19:01They came without any notice.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05They locked Pastor Ekarte up in his office
0:19:05 > 0:19:11and they forcibly removed us - after a fight, of course.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15We were only little children, but we knew these houses back to front.
0:19:15 > 0:19:19And when these officials came, well, we gave them the run-around,
0:19:19 > 0:19:23hiding in the cellars and the attics and screaming.
0:19:25 > 0:19:29I can remember biting a few of the officials
0:19:29 > 0:19:34in my struggles for them not to take me, you know?
0:19:35 > 0:19:38It's something you never forget.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42I mean, I know I was approaching five,
0:19:42 > 0:19:45but you never forget those occasions.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48- It's on your mind all the time. - Even now?
0:19:48 > 0:19:52- Even now, as though it happened yesterday.- Really?
0:19:52 > 0:19:54And I'm 66 years of age.
0:19:57 > 0:20:02So, you know, you always remember that kind of trauma.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13The Home Office had decided it was time to shut down Ekarte's makeshift orphanage.
0:20:13 > 0:20:16Brian and all the other brown babies in Liverpool
0:20:16 > 0:20:20would be cared for in state-run care-homes from now on.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35My brother-in-law, Tony, started his life at Barnardo's - a private charity.
0:20:35 > 0:20:40After five years he was placed with a foster family, the Tabors,
0:20:40 > 0:20:42who lived in the village of Balsham, near Cambridge.
0:20:46 > 0:20:51It was the beginning of a life-long closeness to his adopted sister, Joyce.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59- Do you remember Tony arriving at Balsham?- Yes, I do.
0:21:00 > 0:21:06It was like going home from school and finding you've got another brother or sister, it was fantastic.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10And Joyce, did you notice that he was different from you?
0:21:10 > 0:21:12- No.- Really? No.
0:21:12 > 0:21:14I mean here was a little brown baby with frizzy hair.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18Yes, but no I didn't and it wasn't until we went swimming one day
0:21:18 > 0:21:22and I said, "Well why does my hair go like rats' tails? "
0:21:22 > 0:21:26And he shook his head and it was dry and I thought wow!
0:21:26 > 0:21:27But no.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31- Was Tony in any way, was he a troubled child?- He was agitated.
0:21:31 > 0:21:32When you say agitated, what do you mean?
0:21:32 > 0:21:36But Dad would just cuddle him and that's when he used to say,
0:21:36 > 0:21:37"All he needs is loving."
0:21:38 > 0:21:42He needed to feel he belonged. And he did belong.
0:21:43 > 0:21:48Describe the Tabors, who brought you up here in Balsham.
0:21:48 > 0:21:50My father was very quiet, he loved his dog, a lovely dog,
0:21:50 > 0:21:54and my mother was always there for me, she was there for everybody.
0:21:54 > 0:21:57We were treated all the same, my brothers and sisters.
0:21:57 > 0:22:00It was a happy place, it was a very happy place.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06But while Tony settled happily into his new family,
0:22:06 > 0:22:09his birth mother clearly had regrets.
0:22:10 > 0:22:15I met my real mother when I was nine, she came to see me.
0:22:15 > 0:22:18And she asked me did I want to go and live with her
0:22:18 > 0:22:21and I said no, I was quite happy where I was.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23I felt a little sad I think.
0:22:26 > 0:22:28Sorry for her that she'd come back for me.
0:22:28 > 0:22:29But I felt...
0:22:29 > 0:22:31Where I was was fine.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34I was happy living with my family.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36Do you think about her now at all?
0:22:39 > 0:22:40No, I don't, really.
0:22:40 > 0:22:43It's such an awful thing to say.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45But I was so ensconced at home
0:22:45 > 0:22:48that that was the place I wanted to be.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52And what about your father, your natural father.
0:22:53 > 0:22:58There were some periods in my life when I would have liked to find out,
0:22:58 > 0:23:02when I went to America on business and went to New York and thought, you know...
0:23:02 > 0:23:07But as a whole, no, I didn't really, I was happy, my home was in Balsham.
0:23:09 > 0:23:16Tony was one of the lucky ones. He'd found his place in a loving, happy family and never looked back.
0:23:16 > 0:23:22But for others, not knowing who their real parents were proved to be a more haunting experience.
0:23:22 > 0:23:27This little girl's father was one of the thousands of seaman from across the world
0:23:27 > 0:23:32who flocked to Britain during the war, but he was never to be a part of her life.
0:23:33 > 0:23:37I grew up thinking I'd been deserted.
0:23:37 > 0:23:40Our mothers died thinking they'd been deserted,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43because they didn't know this story.
0:23:50 > 0:23:55What happened here on the streets of Liverpool in the summer of 1946
0:23:55 > 0:24:01was one of the most shameful episodes in Britain's postwar history.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04In a number of dawn raids, the police descended on the area.
0:24:04 > 0:24:08Their mission - to round up any Chinese seamen they could find.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13They went from house to house, loaded the men onto trucks which took them down to the docks,
0:24:13 > 0:24:17where a boat was ready and waiting for their journey to China.
0:24:20 > 0:24:25As a port city, Liverpool had long been a magnet for seamen from all over the world.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31But during WW2, there was a huge influx of foreign sailors.
0:24:33 > 0:24:38Around 2,000 Chinese sailors settled in Liverpool after serving in the merchant navy.
0:24:41 > 0:24:45Many had married local women and had started families,
0:24:45 > 0:24:49boosting the city's already established mixed-race community.
0:24:50 > 0:24:52They thought they were here to stay.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58But the government had other ideas.
0:24:58 > 0:25:02Despite their undoubted contribution to Britain's war effort,
0:25:02 > 0:25:06ministers decided the Chinese seamen had to go.
0:25:06 > 0:25:09It made no difference whether that broke up families or not.
0:25:13 > 0:25:16Home Office minutes made their reasons clear.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20"The Chinese seamen have caused a good deal of trouble to the police,
0:25:20 > 0:25:24"but it has hitherto not been possible to get rid of them.
0:25:24 > 0:25:30"Now, however, the China coast is open again and it is proposed to set in motion the usual steps
0:25:30 > 0:25:33"for getting rid of foreign seamen whose presence here is unwelcome."
0:25:40 > 0:25:45In total, 1,362 Chinese men were forced to leave.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48Of those, some 300 were married.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55Somewhere between 500 and 1,000 children were left fatherless.
0:25:58 > 0:26:04One of these was Yvonne Foley, who grew up unaware of her Chinese heritage.
0:26:05 > 0:26:10When I was about seven I made friends with somebody who I thought was a full Chinese boy
0:26:10 > 0:26:13who'd just come to live in the neighbourhood.
0:26:13 > 0:26:18And I ran home to Mum and said, "Oh, we've got a new lad in the street, he's Chinese."
0:26:18 > 0:26:24My mother said, "No, no, no, he's like you, half Chinese - half English, half Chinese."
0:26:24 > 0:26:26And I thought, "Huh, what's that about?"
0:26:26 > 0:26:29- It really came as a complete surprise?- Yes.
0:26:29 > 0:26:37And I thought, OK, and my mum said, "Well your dad is not your real dad. Your dad is a Chinese dad."
0:26:37 > 0:26:40And didn't think anything of it.
0:26:40 > 0:26:43And then snippets of information came as I got older.
0:26:46 > 0:26:50What Yvonne discovered was that her real father had been a ship's engineer from Shanghai,
0:26:50 > 0:26:53who'd met her mother in Liverpool during the war.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57But by the time Yvonne had been born he'd disappeared.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03I have a photograph of myself as a baby
0:27:03 > 0:27:07and I discovered on the back of it is a date.
0:27:07 > 0:27:12I was born in February '46 and on the back of the photograph it says,
0:27:12 > 0:27:15"March 23rd 1946. To Daddy."
0:27:17 > 0:27:19Who'd obviously never got it.
0:27:19 > 0:27:24Why do you think so many women, including your mother,
0:27:24 > 0:27:27thought they'd been deserted by their menfolk?
0:27:27 > 0:27:30Well, I think when they went away to sea,
0:27:30 > 0:27:35they would go on long-term contracts, say two years.
0:27:35 > 0:27:37They didn't hear from their husbands one way or the other.
0:27:37 > 0:27:42And in my mother's case, she had felt she'd been deserted, because she'd heard nothing.
0:27:47 > 0:27:50What do you think actually happened to your father?
0:27:50 > 0:27:53I'm convinced he's one of the men that were forced back.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59I've got nothing to prove this at all, as most of us don't.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01We can't find any names on a list.
0:28:03 > 0:28:07But I believe he was one of those forced to leave.
0:28:09 > 0:28:15The whole murky episode has scarred the families those Chinese men left behind.
0:28:15 > 0:28:19Yvonne has talked to others who found themselves in the same position as her.
0:28:19 > 0:28:26I actually did an interview with one lady who said to me... It was quite emotional.
0:28:28 > 0:28:29Sorry.
0:28:35 > 0:28:36It's OK.
0:28:41 > 0:28:43What she actually said was...
0:28:43 > 0:28:48"It's nice to think at my age of 86 that I might not have been deserted."
0:28:51 > 0:28:55And a lot of our mothers went to their graves thinking that they had been.
0:29:05 > 0:29:09Ironically, just as Britain was sending some people packing,
0:29:09 > 0:29:12others were being welcomed into Britain.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19"The arrival of more than 400 happy Jamaicans.
0:29:19 > 0:29:23"They've come to seek work in Britain and are ready and willing to do any kind of job
0:29:23 > 0:29:26"that will help the motherland along the road to prosperity.
0:29:26 > 0:29:28"They're all full of hope for the future,
0:29:28 > 0:29:31"so let's make them very welcome as they begin their new life over here."
0:29:33 > 0:29:38Now came the years of mass immigration, following a change in the law in 1948
0:29:38 > 0:29:42giving British citizenship to anyone from the Commonwealth and the Colonies
0:29:42 > 0:29:44and the right to settle here.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48Thousands of single men arrived looking for work.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51They'd left their families and sweethearts behind.
0:29:51 > 0:29:55Inevitably, they found solace in the arms of local white girls
0:29:55 > 0:29:58- Britain's racial landscape changed forever.
0:30:01 > 0:30:06Amongst those new arrivals was Jake Jacobs, recently demobbed from the RAF.
0:30:06 > 0:30:08He left Trinidad for good in 1948.
0:30:10 > 0:30:13He headed straight for Birmingham, where there were plenty of jobs.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18"He is here because he has heard there are jobs for coloured men in Birmingham,
0:30:18 > 0:30:22"a city with a reputation for kindness to its immigrants."
0:30:23 > 0:30:26In those days, you had to go to the labour exchange
0:30:26 > 0:30:32and fill a form in and they used to pick a job out for you.
0:30:32 > 0:30:37And the labour exchange offered me the Post Office or the railway.
0:30:41 > 0:30:43What was it like in the early days?
0:30:43 > 0:30:49Well, it wasn't easy in the sense... There was a lot of prejudice, with a doubt.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53And you you got the dirty jobs, you got the worst shifts as well.
0:30:53 > 0:30:59But like everything else, once you make your name you're treated well.
0:31:00 > 0:31:05And I went with them and I worked for 38 years, fantastic job.
0:31:05 > 0:31:12It wasn't only the prospect of a good job that had lured Jake back to Britain.
0:31:12 > 0:31:15All the time he'd been away in Trinidad,
0:31:15 > 0:31:18Jake had been writing love letters to Mary in Liverpool.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22And now he was determined to pick up where he'd left off.
0:31:24 > 0:31:25Was she as pretty as you remembered?
0:31:25 > 0:31:29Oh yeah, oh, yes, as beautiful as ever.
0:31:29 > 0:31:33What was the day like, from your point of view?
0:31:33 > 0:31:37Oh, it was like a new year for me, that's the way I can put it.
0:31:37 > 0:31:39It was like a new day in my life.
0:31:40 > 0:31:43And that was it.
0:31:43 > 0:31:48Something I'd been looking for through my life sort of thing.
0:31:48 > 0:31:50And I think I've clinched it.
0:31:50 > 0:31:54So how did you go about wooing this woman again?
0:31:54 > 0:31:57He said things, what did you say to me, come on?
0:31:57 > 0:32:00"To be or not to be, would you please marry me".
0:32:00 > 0:32:02That was your proposal?
0:32:02 > 0:32:04My proposal!
0:32:04 > 0:32:06- Shakespeare came to the rescue. - Of course.
0:32:08 > 0:32:13But though Jake and Mary were sure they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together,
0:32:13 > 0:32:16Mary's father was against their love affair.
0:32:17 > 0:32:20My father wouldn't acknowledge it.
0:32:20 > 0:32:22What do you mean, he wouldn't acknowledge it?
0:32:22 > 0:32:25He just didn't look at me, didn't say anything.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29And I just didn't know what to do.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33What was going through your mind?
0:32:33 > 0:32:35I mean, this is your dad, but this is also the man you love.
0:32:35 > 0:32:36You're caught in the middle.
0:32:37 > 0:32:44Oh I do remember him saying, whether it was at that point or earlier,
0:32:44 > 0:32:53I remember him saying, "Now you've taken up with this young man from Trinidad,
0:32:54 > 0:32:56"this black man,
0:32:56 > 0:33:01"you will never get a decent boyfriend. Never."
0:33:03 > 0:33:06Did your father actually say that to you?
0:33:06 > 0:33:10Yes, he said, "Don't come back here, I don't want to ever see you again."
0:33:10 > 0:33:12And my mother and I were both crying.
0:33:15 > 0:33:18And I came away thinking that that was the end,
0:33:18 > 0:33:21that I would never see my family again.
0:33:23 > 0:33:26Despite that, in 1948 Mary and Jake got married.
0:33:28 > 0:33:30No family whatsoever were there.
0:33:31 > 0:33:33We had no-one.
0:33:33 > 0:33:35It is only friends that were there.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39- It's quite a rough way to start a marriage, isn't it?- It is.
0:33:39 > 0:33:41Without the support of a family.
0:33:41 > 0:33:42That's correct.
0:33:42 > 0:33:49And it hurts, you look around and think to yourself, well, is this what life is all about?
0:33:56 > 0:33:59Mary and Jake were brave enough to follow their hearts.
0:33:59 > 0:34:01Others were more timid.
0:34:01 > 0:34:08A letter from a "Liz of Cardiff" to a woman's magazine in 1951, sums up the situation pretty neatly.
0:34:08 > 0:34:12"I'm very much in love with a coloured man, he's the nicest,
0:34:12 > 0:34:17"kindest boy I've ever met and I know he'll make a splendid husband.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19"But my parents are against our marriage.
0:34:19 > 0:34:22"Can they stop me marrying?"
0:34:22 > 0:34:24And the agony aunt's reply?
0:34:24 > 0:34:31"Not unless you're under 21, but I hope for your own sake that you think things over very carefully.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35"Many coloured men are fine people, but scientists don't yet know if it is wise
0:34:35 > 0:34:40"for two such very different races as white and black to marry.
0:34:40 > 0:34:47"For sometimes children of mixed marriages seem to inherit the worst characteristics of each race."
0:34:52 > 0:34:57In fact such thinking - put forward by the eugenics movement before the war - was outdated.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06Now take me, I'm just a plain and simple citizen of Europe,
0:35:06 > 0:35:11I can see that this race theory has caused misery and suffering,
0:35:11 > 0:35:15but do you really mean that there's nothing in it, it's all a lot of bunk?
0:35:16 > 0:35:22In 1950, the UN's education and science agency had ruled that there was
0:35:22 > 0:35:25"no biological justification for prohibiting intermarriage
0:35:25 > 0:35:28"between persons of different ethnic groups."
0:35:29 > 0:35:32This official stamp of approval for mixed-race marriages was soon
0:35:32 > 0:35:36to be tested by a very high-profile wedding.
0:35:38 > 0:35:43In 1953, the ever so respectable, 32-year-old Peggy Cripps,
0:35:43 > 0:35:46daughter of Labour MP Sir Stafford Cripps, got married.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51The wedding took place in London's fashionable St John's Wood
0:35:51 > 0:35:53and was THE society wedding of the year.
0:35:55 > 0:35:57But this was a society wedding with a difference,
0:35:57 > 0:36:01because Peggy Cripps's groom was not some British toff,
0:36:01 > 0:36:05he was Joe Appiah, a Ghanaian chieftain's son.
0:36:07 > 0:36:11"An African with some kind of a snake charm said to bring luck was in the picture at the church."
0:36:16 > 0:36:20When a journalist asked her why she was marrying a coloured man, Peggy replied,
0:36:20 > 0:36:26"Because I love him and love is greater than colour, creed or race."
0:36:26 > 0:36:32What she was saying so simply yet so eloquently was that love could cross all racial barriers.
0:36:35 > 0:36:38Actually, their wedding said even more than that.
0:36:38 > 0:36:44It showed that mixed-race relationships were happening at all levels of society.
0:36:44 > 0:36:50For left-leaning liberals, Peggy and Joe's union symbolised the ideal of a multicultural society
0:36:50 > 0:36:55But when their wedding photos were syndicated around the world, many were outraged.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03Charles Swart, South Africa's Justice Minister
0:37:03 > 0:37:06and one of the architects of the country's apartheid system,
0:37:06 > 0:37:10brandished their wedding photograph in parliament and declared,
0:37:10 > 0:37:14"It's a disgusting photograph of a wedding between the daughter
0:37:14 > 0:37:18"of a former British cabinet minister and a black native.
0:37:18 > 0:37:23"If such a thing were ever to happen in South Africa, it would be the end."
0:37:29 > 0:37:33Of course, the reaction in Britain was nowhere near as extreme,
0:37:33 > 0:37:37but neither were we quite ready to welcome this couple with open arms.
0:37:37 > 0:37:42"After the ceremony the happy pair smilingly faced the cameras once more.
0:37:42 > 0:37:46"It is understood Mr and Mrs Appiah, after spending their honeymoon in Paris
0:37:46 > 0:37:48"intend to live on the Gold Coast."
0:37:49 > 0:37:55When the couple announced they planned to start their new married life together in Ghana, not Britain,
0:37:55 > 0:37:59you could virtually hear the sighs of relief.
0:37:59 > 0:38:04The problem of this high-profile mixed marriage was about to be exported.
0:38:08 > 0:38:12But the problem, as some saw it, wasn't really going away.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16Far from it. Across country it was getting bigger.
0:38:16 > 0:38:20"Lambeth and Brixton have been much in the news recently following the controversy
0:38:20 > 0:38:24"that has raged over the immigration of West Indians to this country."
0:38:25 > 0:38:29On average, 12,000 West Indians were entering Britain each year
0:38:29 > 0:38:34and more and more were settling down with local women.
0:38:34 > 0:38:39"To help solve the problems raised when white and coloured people live in the same neighbourhood,
0:38:39 > 0:38:42"the Borough of Lambeth organised a 'no colour bar' dance."
0:38:43 > 0:38:46By the time this film was made in 1955,
0:38:46 > 0:38:51the total black population in Britain had risen to 125,000,
0:38:51 > 0:38:58but the sight of mixed-race couples on the dance-floor was still something that caused a stir.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02"East had met West on common ground, few were wallflowers for very long.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06"The rhythm of the Mambo was doing its bit towards racial unity!"
0:39:09 > 0:39:11Officially, scientific racism had been rejected,
0:39:11 > 0:39:14but amongst the general public, prejudice was still widespread.
0:39:17 > 0:39:22Mary, dancing was a big part of your courtship in the early years of marriage.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26When you went to dance halls were you free of discrimination?
0:39:26 > 0:39:28No, no, you weren't.
0:39:31 > 0:39:36If you danced with a black man you were discriminated against, because people didn't like it.
0:39:36 > 0:39:42Did you feel people were making a judgement on you because you were on the arm of a black man?
0:39:42 > 0:39:44Oh, yes.
0:39:44 > 0:39:50And were you aware that people might be looking at Mary and making a judgement about her?
0:39:50 > 0:39:56Oh, yes, I mean some people used to more or less come to your face and tell you straight.
0:39:56 > 0:39:57Without a doubt.
0:39:57 > 0:39:58Tell you straight what?
0:39:58 > 0:40:02What you going with that black bastard for?
0:40:02 > 0:40:06- Really? Language like that?- Oh, yes.
0:40:06 > 0:40:13People would comment, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself" as you walked past.
0:40:13 > 0:40:18People my mother's age, I suppose, would be thinking,
0:40:18 > 0:40:22"I wouldn't like my daughter to do what she's doing."
0:40:27 > 0:40:29Mary and Jake's experience was not unique.
0:40:43 > 0:40:48But it didn't deter the growing numbers of mixed-race couples.
0:40:48 > 0:40:51I am married to a coloured man and I am proud of him.
0:40:52 > 0:40:59Cos he helps me with all my work, he helps me to do the washing.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02He's very good to me and my baby. I wouldn't find it in an Englishman.
0:41:05 > 0:41:09And as more and more of the new arrivals from the West Indies
0:41:09 > 0:41:11settled down with local white women,
0:41:11 > 0:41:14Pathe news was on hand to reflect just how fundamentally
0:41:14 > 0:41:17British families were changing.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20In what are clearly outtakes, there's no sound,
0:41:20 > 0:41:24you see these young white women with their black husbands,
0:41:24 > 0:41:27with their happy little children,
0:41:27 > 0:41:30the fathers and mother engage with the kids.
0:41:30 > 0:41:32They were intended to show this is ordinary.
0:41:32 > 0:41:36It's an ordinary, everyday thing that's happening here.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38It's like any other married couple.
0:41:38 > 0:41:40They probably have their ups and downs,
0:41:40 > 0:41:43but at heart, they're a loving couple.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46In many respects, it's a kind of antidote
0:41:46 > 0:41:52to some of the forms of stigmatising of these relationships
0:41:52 > 0:41:56and saying, "look, it's ordinary, what are you worried about?"
0:42:00 > 0:42:03But apparently, plenty of people were.
0:42:03 > 0:42:07A poll taken by a Vicar in his north London parish at this time
0:42:07 > 0:42:09had asked the question,
0:42:09 > 0:42:14"would you approve of your sister or daughter marrying a coloured man?"
0:42:14 > 0:42:1691% had said they wouldn't approve.
0:42:18 > 0:42:21Shortly afterwards, the vicar, Reverend Clifford Hill,
0:42:21 > 0:42:24who was also a part-time sociologist,
0:42:24 > 0:42:27made his way to the British Broadcasting Corporation
0:42:27 > 0:42:30to give a radio interview about his findings.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39When the Reverend himself was asked by the radio interviewer
0:42:39 > 0:42:42if he'd mind if his own daughter married a black man, he said,
0:42:42 > 0:42:46"I wouldn't worry if my grandchildren were half-caste."
0:42:46 > 0:42:47"I wouldn't mind at all."
0:42:47 > 0:42:50The next day, the words, "nigger-loving priest"
0:42:50 > 0:42:55and "race-mixing priest" were daubed on the pavement outside his house.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59Sadly, that might have been the real Britain speaking.
0:43:01 > 0:43:05Mixed-race relationships had become an issue of national debate.
0:43:05 > 0:43:07ITV pitched in.
0:43:11 > 0:43:15People say that the colour bar is beginning to fade.
0:43:15 > 0:43:17But I wonder if it is.
0:43:17 > 0:43:19I think if we were honest with ourselves,
0:43:19 > 0:43:21we'd admit it would be a bit of a shock
0:43:21 > 0:43:24if we were told that our sister or daughter
0:43:24 > 0:43:27was going to marry a coloured man.
0:43:27 > 0:43:31Conservative parliamentary candidate, James Wentworth Day,
0:43:31 > 0:43:34certainly had strong feelings on this matter.
0:43:34 > 0:43:35My view is this,
0:43:35 > 0:43:39that no first-class nation can afford to produce a race of mongrels.
0:43:39 > 0:43:41That is what we're doing.
0:43:41 > 0:43:43Too much mixed blood.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46Look at the other angle, the black man -
0:43:46 > 0:43:48and I refuse this humbug of talking about the coloured man.
0:43:48 > 0:43:52He's black and we're white, has a different set of standards,
0:43:52 > 0:43:54values, morals and principles.
0:43:54 > 0:43:57In many cases, their grandfathers were eating each other.
0:44:05 > 0:44:07In some inner-city areas,
0:44:07 > 0:44:11prejudice was being fuelled by tension over jobs and housing.
0:44:15 > 0:44:18On Friday August 29th 1958,
0:44:18 > 0:44:21there was a petty domestic dispute between Jamaican, Ray Morrison,
0:44:21 > 0:44:25and his pregnant Swedish wife, Majbritt in London's Notting Hill.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33The rowing couple were seen by a crowd of white Teddy boys
0:44:33 > 0:44:34who started to heckle Ray.
0:44:34 > 0:44:37They were about to go even further,
0:44:37 > 0:44:39but were shocked by Majbritt's reaction.
0:44:39 > 0:44:43She shouted at them and told them to leave her husband alone.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46The next night, and it was after pub closing time,
0:44:46 > 0:44:48the gang spotted Majbritt again.
0:44:48 > 0:44:50She was out on her own.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53"There's goes the black man's trollop," they shouted.
0:44:53 > 0:44:57They chased her and she was hit with an iron bar.
0:45:04 > 0:45:06Over the next few nights,
0:45:06 > 0:45:09violent scenes erupted all over Notting Hill.
0:45:09 > 0:45:13A fear that West Indians were not only taking their jobs and housing,
0:45:13 > 0:45:14but their women as well,
0:45:14 > 0:45:18led to vicious "nigger hunts" by white Teddy Boys.
0:45:23 > 0:45:26In the early Sixties, a rash of British feature films
0:45:26 > 0:45:27tackled the racial prejudice
0:45:27 > 0:45:30that had been so graphically exposed by the '58 riots.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37In Roy Ward Baker's 1961 film, Flame in the Streets,
0:45:37 > 0:45:42the Teddy Boy thugs are lifted straight from the streets of Notting Hill.
0:45:46 > 0:45:49Hold up, that'll send 'em crackers!
0:45:49 > 0:45:53But the real focus of the film is the interracial relationship
0:45:53 > 0:45:58between factory worker Gabriel Gomez and his pregnant wife, Judy.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00You all right?
0:46:00 > 0:46:03- How you feeling woman? You ain't sick?- No, just tired.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06I feel like I'm carrying an elephant.
0:46:06 > 0:46:07I'll get your tea.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09No, you stay there.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11This film was truly groundbreaking.
0:46:11 > 0:46:15It was the first time cinemagoers would've seen a black man
0:46:15 > 0:46:16kissing a white woman.
0:46:16 > 0:46:21All those fears about the perfect British family being invaded,
0:46:21 > 0:46:24they were being played out on the big screen.
0:46:24 > 0:46:28Listen, from now on, I do the shopping, see?
0:46:28 > 0:46:31I ain't let you carry them heavy loads up the stairs.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34Actor, Earl Cameron, was himself in a mixed-race marriage
0:46:34 > 0:46:36when he appeared in Flame in the Streets.
0:46:36 > 0:46:40For him, the film was just a mirror of real life.
0:46:40 > 0:46:44That kiss that you gave your wife, Judy,
0:46:44 > 0:46:47that was a pivotal moment, wasn't it?
0:46:47 > 0:46:48I suppose so.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50On the set, it didn't mean anything.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54We didn't rehearse it, it just came natural, I just did it.
0:46:54 > 0:46:56You're kidding?
0:46:56 > 0:46:59That kiss that has since been looked at over and over again,
0:46:59 > 0:47:01that's a first screen kiss?
0:47:01 > 0:47:02That wasn't in the script?
0:47:02 > 0:47:06No. In fact, I thought afterwards
0:47:06 > 0:47:09I should've kissed her a little stronger.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13It's a natural thing for me to have kissed the girl.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15Well, it's happening every day in life, isn't it?
0:47:18 > 0:47:22Since the late '50s, progressive young white people,
0:47:22 > 0:47:24trend setters, if you like,
0:47:24 > 0:47:29had immersed themselves in black music and culture.
0:47:29 > 0:47:33And mixing was by no means limited to the dance floor.
0:47:33 > 0:47:37London at that time was very mixed. I mean, the clubs and so on,
0:47:37 > 0:47:39all classes.
0:47:39 > 0:47:43A lot of society women would come to places like the Caribbean Club
0:47:43 > 0:47:46just to mix with black men.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49Very high-class women from time to time.
0:47:49 > 0:47:52It was all rather decadent, to be honest.
0:47:52 > 0:47:54But that's what the '60s was about.
0:48:03 > 0:48:06In the early 1960s, any self-respecting bohemian
0:48:06 > 0:48:12would've come to The Caribbean Totobag club here in Notting Hill.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16Now it didn't look like much, but it was the cool hangout
0:48:16 > 0:48:21for the likes of author Colin MacInnes or pop star Georgie Fame.
0:48:28 > 0:48:30# Walkin' the dog
0:48:30 > 0:48:34# Just a-walking the dog
0:48:36 > 0:48:39Legend has it that other regulars would be aristocrats
0:48:39 > 0:48:41from the very top of society.
0:48:41 > 0:48:46They would rock up in their Rolls and leave their chauffeurs outside.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50Inside, they would mix with men like Alfred Harvey.
0:48:50 > 0:48:53He was a tall, handsome Jamaican,
0:48:53 > 0:48:56who also answered to the name, King Dick.
0:48:57 > 0:49:03Good sex was the thing that really attracted them to us.
0:49:03 > 0:49:07Sex played a great part in it, the stamina, you know,
0:49:07 > 0:49:10that's why they call me King Dick.
0:49:10 > 0:49:15Well the Dick's gone now but the King still remains.
0:49:24 > 0:49:28In the mid-sixties, the sight of a mixed-race couple kissing
0:49:28 > 0:49:31would still have been offensive to many.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36But what about beaming it into the nation's homes?
0:49:38 > 0:49:43In 1964, ITV set the nation's pulse racing with a television first.
0:49:46 > 0:49:48For weeks, the story of the relationship
0:49:48 > 0:49:51between Dr Mahler and Dr Farmer,
0:49:51 > 0:49:54had been building to this critical moment.
0:49:56 > 0:49:58What are you doing?
0:49:58 > 0:50:00I want to kiss you.
0:50:00 > 0:50:02What for?
0:50:02 > 0:50:03Just because.
0:50:09 > 0:50:11Oh, that's better.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18Emergency Ward 10 was one of Britain's most popular soap operas,
0:50:18 > 0:50:22regularly pulling in audiences of 15 million
0:50:22 > 0:50:24and up to 24 million at its peak.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26The film, Flame in the Streets,
0:50:26 > 0:50:30had already featured mixed-race relationships three years earlier.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34But this was the first time a mixed-race couple was actually seen
0:50:34 > 0:50:36kissing on British television.
0:50:36 > 0:50:37This was different.
0:50:37 > 0:50:40This brought the issue right into people's living rooms.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43Early call for me tomorrow.
0:50:43 > 0:50:45Yes, and me.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49I remember it at the time and I remember the huge furore.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52There were headlines in the newspapers the next day
0:50:52 > 0:50:53about this kiss.
0:50:53 > 0:50:57I think it was partly because this was coming into people's homes,
0:50:57 > 0:50:59the TV is always much more intimate, isn't it?
0:50:59 > 0:51:02All of a sudden, you've got this intrusion
0:51:02 > 0:51:04that you hadn't expected or anticipated.
0:51:08 > 0:51:11Emergency Ward 10 proved to be right on the button.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16By the mid '60s, the NHS was playing match maker.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19Mixed-race romance was blossoming in hospitals
0:51:19 > 0:51:21up and down the country.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31Maureen Walsh, from County Clare in Ireland, was just 18 years old
0:51:31 > 0:51:34and working as a trainee nurse at Burnley General Hospital
0:51:34 > 0:51:36when she met her future husband.
0:51:39 > 0:51:43We had a wonderful social life, as we thought then in the '60s.
0:51:43 > 0:51:46We may have had a party once a year.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49That's when I first met him.
0:51:49 > 0:51:52I think he asked me to dance.
0:51:52 > 0:51:54Was it love at first sight?
0:51:54 > 0:51:57Well, I did think he looked very nice.
0:51:57 > 0:51:59My heart used to miss a beat.
0:51:59 > 0:52:04- When you saw him? - Yes, it did, yes, it did.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06What did you think, Bez?
0:52:06 > 0:52:11To me, when I met Maureen, I thought she's beautiful girl,
0:52:11 > 0:52:15beautiful mind, I fell in love.
0:52:15 > 0:52:16- At that first meeting?- Yes.
0:52:16 > 0:52:20I've only just found that out now, I didn't know!
0:52:25 > 0:52:30By the mid-'60s, Britain's immigrant population had expanded.
0:52:30 > 0:52:32As well as West Indians and Africans,
0:52:32 > 0:52:37over 100,000 Indian and Pakistanis had entered the country,
0:52:37 > 0:52:40despite the 1962 Commonwealth Immigrants Act
0:52:40 > 0:52:42which sought to stem the flow.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47Some were young Asian doctors who, like Dr Bezboruah,
0:52:47 > 0:52:52had come to Britain to find work in the expanding NHS.
0:52:54 > 0:52:56Can you remember your first day,
0:52:56 > 0:52:59what it was like being amongst other members of staff?
0:52:59 > 0:53:02Yes, I enjoyed it straight away
0:53:02 > 0:53:09because doctors, nurses, consultants, they're all friendly,
0:53:09 > 0:53:11they all knew each other.
0:53:12 > 0:53:18We all lived in, so the hospital was like its own community
0:53:18 > 0:53:21and we felt like brothers and sisters.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27The NHS was a magnet for people of all nationalities,
0:53:27 > 0:53:29many of whom were still a novelty
0:53:29 > 0:53:32for the young English and Irish nurses like Maureen.
0:53:32 > 0:53:38So what attracted you to these Indian doctors, people like Bez?
0:53:38 > 0:53:40I thought they were beautiful looking.
0:53:40 > 0:53:42I always loved people with dark skin,
0:53:42 > 0:53:45I think they're so attractive and look so healthy.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48- Was there a sense of excitement meeting people like that?- Oh, yes.
0:53:48 > 0:53:53They looked different, they acted different, they cooked different.
0:53:54 > 0:53:57It was wonderful.
0:53:57 > 0:54:02We were trying things we'd never tried before or heard of before.
0:54:02 > 0:54:05You make it sound like a really exciting period.
0:54:05 > 0:54:10It really was, it was so simple but it was so exciting.
0:54:14 > 0:54:18After a two-year courtship, Maureen and Bez got married.
0:54:20 > 0:54:23He was very well received by my family,
0:54:23 > 0:54:28but my father, he was concerned
0:54:28 > 0:54:35in case there would be any repercussions from people
0:54:35 > 0:54:37because of a mixed marriage, he was obviously protecting me.
0:54:37 > 0:54:39What about your mum?
0:54:39 > 0:54:41My mother said to me,
0:54:41 > 0:54:46"Maureen, I married the man I loved and you must do the same".
0:54:47 > 0:54:51She said she didn't want me to go through life
0:54:51 > 0:54:57and not have married the man I loved and perhaps be unhappy for ever more.
0:54:57 > 0:54:59She said she couldn't live with that.
0:54:59 > 0:55:01What a mum to have.
0:55:01 > 0:55:03Yes, she's still alive at 89.
0:55:07 > 0:55:12Once you married and had kids, was that a challenge at all?
0:55:12 > 0:55:14I didn't think so.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17No, it never worried me, never.
0:55:17 > 0:55:21We had wonderful neighbours, nobody looked at my children.
0:55:21 > 0:55:25Maybe I wasn't looking, because I was so happily married
0:55:25 > 0:55:27with my baby.
0:55:28 > 0:55:31She looked beautiful, her colouring was gorgeous
0:55:31 > 0:55:34and I was so proud of her.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40By 1968, there were two Race Relations Acts
0:55:40 > 0:55:44which outlawed discrimination in jobs and housing,
0:55:44 > 0:55:46protecting the rights of immigrants
0:55:46 > 0:55:49wanting to make a life for themselves in this country.
0:55:54 > 0:55:58Prejudice amongst the public had certainly not been eradicated,
0:55:58 > 0:56:01but a new liberalism was in the air.
0:56:11 > 0:56:14The late '60s saw the Summer of Love,
0:56:14 > 0:56:18the questioning of old ideas and changing attitudes towards sex,
0:56:18 > 0:56:20gender and race.
0:56:23 > 0:56:28In 1968, the BBC screened this pioneering documentary.
0:56:29 > 0:56:34Donald Raymond, wilt thou have this woman to thy wedded wife,
0:56:34 > 0:56:36to live together after God's ordinance
0:56:36 > 0:56:38in the holy estate of Matrimony?
0:56:45 > 0:56:47Another screen kiss,
0:56:47 > 0:56:50but unlike all those fictional clinches
0:56:50 > 0:56:52in the films and soaps that went before it,
0:56:52 > 0:56:56this was the first time a genuine kiss had been seen on British TV.
0:56:56 > 0:56:58These weren't actors going through the motions,
0:56:58 > 0:57:01this was a real couple in love.
0:57:04 > 0:57:06The editor of the Radio Times magazine
0:57:06 > 0:57:10refused to use a photo of the couple kissing to publicise the programme.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13He said it was too provocative.
0:57:13 > 0:57:14Instead, he opted for this.
0:57:19 > 0:57:22But despite the flurry of headlines this caused in the popular press,
0:57:22 > 0:57:26the programme itself was well received.
0:57:26 > 0:57:28It attracted huge viewing figures
0:57:28 > 0:57:31and the broadsheets called it moving and compassionate.
0:57:34 > 0:57:37By the late 1960s, Britain had undoubtedly changed.
0:57:37 > 0:57:41We'd gone from calling children like my brother in law, Tony,
0:57:41 > 0:57:42war casualties,
0:57:42 > 0:57:46to having mixed race relationships on primetime television.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49Postwar Britain was finally coming to terms
0:57:49 > 0:57:52with just how diverse it had become.
0:57:52 > 0:57:55The new race relations legislation was a sign of that.
0:57:55 > 0:58:00But, in many ways, this was still tolerance rather than celebration.
0:58:00 > 0:58:02It would be some time before we really embraced
0:58:02 > 0:58:05the idea of a mixed Britain.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08That would not come till the '70s and beyond,
0:58:08 > 0:58:11when I started to make my way in this country.
0:58:13 > 0:58:19In the next programme, aristocratic adoptions, rock star marriages,
0:58:19 > 0:58:24the search for identity and forbidden love.
0:58:36 > 0:58:40Subtitles by Red Be Media Ltd
0:58:50 > 0:58:54E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk