Tuesday, May 08, 2007

The British Empire in Colour: Legacy

This documentary makes extensive use of remarkable colour footage of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The event appeared to signal the beginnings of a new era for the Commonwealth of Nations.

During this period, emigrants fled from the hardship, rationing, inflation and unemployment of post-war Britain, tempted by the promise of Australian and Canadian riches. Simultaneously, West Indian immigrants flooded into Britain. We reveal the racism and bigotry which this influx provoked within British society.

We examine Britain’s attempts to adjust to its burgeoning multi-cultural society, revealing how the country’s former ‘White Dominions’ - Australia and Canada - sought rapprochement with their repressed and disenfranchised indigenous populations. We look at the process of decolonisation in Rhodesia, where different nationalist factional clashed in a bid to gain control of the former colony.

This colourful documentary reveals how the people of the Empire begin to face the legacy of their imperial past in a rapidly changing international climate.

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