Three Little Birds, ITV1 review: Lenny Henry has no role in this gritty Windrush drama

It’s been hard to keep up with Lenny Henry lately. It appeared on Amazon The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power as a hobbit with a crazy goblin accent playing an evil wizard The Witcher spin off Origin of blood – maintains its dignity despite the creepy dialogue and shaky special effects.

But Henry’s memorable but always watchable new project was much more personal. Three little birdsWritten and produced by the comedian and actor, it was a fascinating and moving retelling of the Windrush generation who left the Caribbean in the 1950s to start a new life in Britain.

This was the history of Britain. But so did Henry: his parents were among those who crossed the ocean to begin the journey more than half a world away (he was the first of his siblings to be born in Britain). He said he wants it Three little birds to escape the terrible prejudice that his family and countless others faced when they arrived in Britain. True to this promise, Three little birds has not done everything possible to stand up to the cruel and ugly racism.

Sisters Leah (the wonderful Rochelle Neal) and Chantrelle (Saffron Coomber) and their uber-religious friend Hosanna (Yazmin Belo) were introduced on the deck of the ship that would take them from the sunny Caribbean to what they believe is a balanced situation. best living in Britain. But when they reached their destination, the weather was gloomy. And then they were faced with racist graffiti.

Racism was as ubiquitous as English rain. That evening, they are confronted by the police, who burst into an innocent house party, to which the sisters were invited by their older brother Aston (Javon Prince).

They had no guilt other than being immigrants. And when Hosanna protested, the officials were offended and threw her into the ring. This is what happened when you stood up for yourself.

Less severe, but no less disturbing, was the racism faced by Chantrelle, who worked as a nanny. When she met her family, they scolded her for being late (“This is not Jamaica”) and confiscated her passport. Then they insisted that she enter the house from the back: through the servants’ entrance. They were an ordinary family from the suburbs of 1950s Britain. When they met a black man they acted like it was Downton Abbey and they are the owners of the estate.

Leah and Chantrelle were chalk and cheese. Star Chantrelle dreamed of becoming a movie star. Little did she know, she was about to move to a country where people with her background would know their place—a place where there were no ambitions to become an actress.

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Leah’s situation was even more difficult. She really wanted to escape Jamaica – for good reasons, we learned. In flashbacks, we saw her burying money to keep her abusive, alcoholic husband from spending it. They had three children. But her despair in her new life was so great that she left and fled to Britain, where Aston was already working in Dudley (Henry’s birthplace).

It was a powerful example of what immigrants often gave up when starting over and the difficult situations they sometimes left behind.

The experiences of the Windrush migrants have been included in important history books. Henry and executive producer Russell T. Davies understood their responsibility to tell the story truthfully and fearlessly, but they never forgot it in order to succeed. Three little birds one must function on the level of pure drama and endure its share of soap opera excitement. It won without much effort.