Bradford Riots Reviews

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Good Points: Impressive, personal, and appearing to be an accurate account of the riots of 2001.

Bad Points: One-dimensional portrayal of the police.

General comments: The Bradford Riots of 2001 came at a time of unrest among a small number of cities in Northern England. The drama perceives events from the point of view taken from a university student played by Sacha Dhawan. Returning home at the end of his second year, he is dragged into the riots by both peer influence and a sense of injustice at the actions of the police who appeared to be protective of the National Front - an organisation with questionable views on race relations.
The Asians who are depicted within the films are refreshingly varied - there is no attempt to form a stereotype of Asian youth - some are strong-willed and misguided, whilst others are well-intentioned, but weak-willed.
Sacha Dhawan appears to be a new young actor who is talented and has a decent range within him, although the potential of this range was not fully explored within the drama (tested thought it was during his prison scenes, which he rose to fully).
It was clear that there was a political under-current to the production of the programme, but then nowadays, if the political message is gotten wrong, there are consequences to pay. I felt that the production managed to traverse this minefield well.
The focus of the drama remained on Sacha Dhawan and the implications for his family - a clever tactic that kept the film fully in focus and avoided it straying into difficult areas that required deeper justifications for the actions which occurred during that period. The impact of the riots on asians was as heavy as it was for any other member of the community, and this was portayed with precision and subtlety.
Also noted in the film was the suprising fact that the sentences handed out to the boys involved were the heaviest given in the post-war period for such offences.
Powerful, moving, and personal drama, well thought out and sensitively executed.