Ridley Road

Having been brought up about 500 yds from Ridley Rd, I looked forward to seeing this. Having seen the first episode, I am reminded of the wise words of Mark Twain, "The difference between truth and fiction, is that fiction has to be believable. This was not.

I am old enough to remember both Colin Jordan and Oswald Mosley, and in particular, the 1962 "visit" by the latter to Ridley Rd in 1962. This ended within minutes with Mosley receiving a police escort to get him out of the area. I'm not certain, but If that was not his last public appearance, it must have been close to it.

What I don't recall from that period, was that there was a Dalston office of Mossad operating in the area. I know that may seem harsh, but the problem I have with it, is that even as "Faction", it doesn't work for me. When it's gets as specific as naming a real place and a real date, you'd expect to see bits that you can recognise as being "based on a true story". But so far, I've seen nothing of the sort. This bears no resemblance to my recollections of Ridley Road and events in 1962.

I don't suppose many members of the older generation in the UK remember much about the National Front party fronted by Colin Jordan, but this neat little four part series from the BBC is a timely reminder of how Nazism existed in the early 60's. Jordan seemed to attract mostly disaffected young men, and the Jewish community in the Ridley Road area decided to put up some opposition to their movement. The story follows a young Jewish girl, Viven Epstein who infiltrates the organization and steals incriminating information about National Front activities. Agnes 0'Casey seemed miscast at first, a tentative youngster missing Manchester and all that was familiar to her, but she grew into the role quite well I thought, and by the end of the series I was hooked.

To be honest, it was a trifle slow at times, but the 1960's setting of Swinging London was lovingly crafted, and production values were very high. Rory Kinnear was suitably commanding as Jordan, Eddie Marsan equally convincing as a Jewish activist. There are spells in the story where the action lags, but from the moment Vivien goes to stay at the National Front HQ the action takes off, and the bit where her cover is blown is really fascinating. The overall story was good in parts, and the ending seemed a bit of a let down; for all his activities Jordan only got nine months in jail which seems little for someone who was betraying his country. Nevertheless Red productions have produced an interesting and timely little story, and I was fascinated to learn that Dior's niece was his wife; watch out for her in the series, the actress who plays her has a blast in the role.

It's like everything 60s is shoveled into this before it happened, the dressers got carried away again?. Eddie Marsan stands out, as ever, with a great performance, the others, mostly...mabye, they were just killing time till the pub opened? It's all a bit BBC with compromise writ large, which sadly, makes the story and characters suffer at the end of the day. I'd advise getting better writers and a motivated cast. The BBC used to do this stuff so well.

A mixed bag of actors. Some classy ones and some not so classy. But the script was full of cliches and this adaptation lacked credibility. The neo Nazis seemed more like a dark version of the Keystone Cops. Like Vigil this is another BBC series that promised much but failed to deliver mostly because of the storylines.

I write to endorse the views of another reviewer of this series as to its basic unhistoricality. The BBC and major US media providers are showing an increasing tendency to disregard the actual historical events and cultural realities, in the interest of importing entirely unrealistic racial, ethnic, and cultural themes artificially into those times. Lest anyone suspect my sympathies, I also lived through the 60's and my wife is Jewish, her entire family lost to the Holocaust and other anti-Semitic atrocities of World War II.

Plainly put, there was no widespread Fascist movement in either the US or Great Britain in 1962. Does anyone seriously think that the British constabulary, less than two decades after World War II, in which many fought and had comrades died, would have any sympathy at all for a British Nazi Party? The prosaic fact is that they had none at all.

In the US, George Lincoln Rockwell, the American Nazi, had a following in the dozens. To be sure, in the American South, society clung to an increasingly outdated racial bigotry. But it was increasingly under attack by larger forces. 'To Kill a Mockingbird' won the Pulitzer Prize that year, and the Civil and Voting Rights Acts were passed just two years later.

A drama about Fascist movements that emphasized their aberrance and potential criminality might be acceptable. However, the notion that they had any widespread social appeal is not only incorrect, but slanderous, and somewhat dangerous in itself. You don't redo history simply because it's convenient,.