8.6 /10 1 Votes
93% Rotten Tomatoes Original language(s) English, Bengali, Urdu Final episode date 22 May 1986 Number of episodes 4 | 8.1/10 IMDb Country of origin United Kingdom First episode date 1 May 1986 Director Roy Battersby | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Tim RothZia MohyeddinGwyneth StrongIan DuryAjay KumarDinesh ShukiaAftab Sachak Theme music composer Dave KellyPeter Filleul Similar Hot Metal, Jossy's Giants, A Very Peculiar Practice, Bluebell, Murder in the Heartland | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
King of the Ghetto is a 1986 British four-part television drama miniseries which was aired on BBC2, it was directed and written by Farrukh Dhondy, and stars Tim Roth. The drama is about racial tensions in London's east end in the 1980s.
Contents
1986 king of the ghetto trail
Overview
Set in and around Brick Lane, white Matthew Long (Tim Roth) mobilises his Bengali neighbours around a squatting campaign in defiance of the Labour-run council. Also, young Bengali vigilantes patrol the streets against National Front skinheads and white liberal Sadie Deedes (Gwyneth Strong) argues for an Islamic school. Meanwhile, Bangladeshi businessman Timur Hussein (Zia Mohyeddin) accumulates wealth and power by trading profitably with local politicians, criminals and police officers simultaneously.
Cast
Reception
In 2014, Dave Hill of The Guardian said, "In King of the Ghetto we see the unfolding of a grassroots struggle... Thirty years on, some things have changed, some have not, but the big themes explored in Dhondy's drama survive."