Thursday, May 4

Is There Any Justice?

Deven Pamben questions the injustice of our legal system. Not to mention the injustice of paying his legal fee.

The BBC is officially taking the piss with Comedy Doubles, (BBC2, 7pm), a supposed comedy whose biggest joke was the fact I agreed to watch it.
This kind of thing pisses me right off and after initially thinking it would be some kind of light hearted doco comparing and contrasting two British comedies all this was, was narrator Mark Benton babbling some nonsense about how Fawlty Towers’ Basil and Rene from ‘Allo ‘Allo both have a moustache before presenting an episode of Fawlty Towers.
Then during the end credits of Fawlty, Benton’s voice once again addresses the audience babbling more balls before I had to sit through a whole f***king episode of ‘Allo ‘Allo.
The BBC had the nerve to describe this as a ‘New Series’.
After being left thoroughly peeved by the good ole beeb for pissing my television licence up a wall, I was nowhere near as angry as those in Bradford Riots (Channel 4, 9pm).
Such programmes can sometimes do more in bringing not only race but working class issues to the fore.
We see the drama through the eyes of Kareem, who has left Bradford to go to University where he now has white friends and a white girlfriend before he goes back home for the summer.
Set in the Manningham area of Bradford on 7 July, 2001 there are tensions ahead of a possible National Front March.
Based on real events, some of the scenes are quite disturbing as a Pakistani man gets beaten up in front of police officers who stand and watch.
As parts of Bradford burns down with Asians now attacking the police we witness too the racism felt towards whites.
The film goes on to illustrate the divisions not only between cultures but also within the Asian community and between Kareem and his family.
Forced to own up by his father for his part in the riotous actions Kareem gets hauled off to the cop shop.
With his brother also at the scene trying the protect Kareem the elder sibling fears he will also end up in the dock, even though he was left bloodied after being hit by a police officer as crowds dispersed.
Kareem breaks down in prison after hearing that his brother has also been charged for being in the wrong place and the wrong time. By the end of the programme we have seen international tesnions stoked in the most possible way, and a sense that people need some retribution.
At times a bit slow the drama left me with the questions, why did the police watch while a man was being beaten? And why was Kareem given five years for throwing a couple of bricks so soon after 11 September, 2001?

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