Sir Steve McQueen series to tackle New Cross fire and Brixton riots

The New Cross fire of January 1981 and the riots in Brixton that took place in April that year are to be examined in Sir Steve McQueen's next TV production.

The Black People's Day of Action held in March 1981 will also feature in Uprising, a "vivid and visceral" three-part documentary series for BBC One.

Sir Steve said the London house fire and its aftermath were "momentous events in our nation's history".

The series follows his Small Axe series of films about UK race relations.

Those films, inspired by stories from London's West Indian community between the 1960s and '80s, lead the way at this year's Bafta TV Awards, having earned 15 nominations last month.

Sir Steve said Uprising would be made using "testimonials from the survivors, investigators, activists and representatives of the machinery of state".

"We can only learn if we look at things through the eyes of everyone concerned," said the Oscar-winning director of Hunger, Widows and 12 Years A Slave.

Charlotte Moore, the BBC's chief content officer, said the "important and evocative" series would look at events "that have defined race relations in Britain today".

The series will be co-directed by James Rogan, who said it would tell "a story that has been waiting to be told in depth for 40 years".

Thirteen black youngsters died in the New Cross house fire of 18 January 1981, which some feared may have been a racist arson attack.

The tragedy prompted an outpouring of grief from Britain's Afro-Caribbean communities and led to a huge march in London a few weeks later on 2 March.

The following month, tensions in Brixton erupted into serious violence that resulted in London's worst 20th Century disorder.

Some 300 police officers and 65 members of the public were injured in three days of unrest that caused £7.5m worth of damage.

The precise cause of the New Cross fire has never been established and nobody has ever been charged in relation to the blaze. Two inquests returned open verdicts.

The fire and the Brixton riots previously featured in Alex Wheatle, one of the five films in the Small Axe series.

John Boyega, Letitia Wright and three other actors from the series are up for Bafta TV Awards, to be presented on 6 June.

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