1 00:00:01,020 --> 00:00:02,820 - I got given the novel written by Andrea Levy, 2 00:00:04,860 --> 00:00:07,650 and this novel was beautiful. 3 00:00:07,650 --> 00:00:08,830 It was brilliant. 4 00:00:08,830 --> 00:00:10,170 It was witty. 5 00:00:10,170 --> 00:00:12,530 And it had told a side of a story 6 00:00:12,530 --> 00:00:14,970 I had never really read before. 7 00:00:14,970 --> 00:00:16,440 - The story gives light 8 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:19,400 to lots of different types of people in that time. 9 00:00:19,400 --> 00:00:21,210 - These are stories that must be told. 10 00:00:21,210 --> 00:00:23,330 How great that Andrea has written this book. 11 00:00:23,330 --> 00:00:25,420 There are incredibly sad moments. 12 00:00:25,420 --> 00:00:26,460 There are violent moments. 13 00:00:26,460 --> 00:00:27,960 There are funny moments. 14 00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:30,790 It's a very big, all encompassing story 15 00:00:30,790 --> 00:00:32,110 about something that happened, 16 00:00:32,110 --> 00:00:33,760 about something that's shocking, 17 00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:36,030 about something you perhaps didn't really know. 18 00:00:36,030 --> 00:00:37,260 - I have to admit, I was like, 19 00:00:37,260 --> 00:00:40,110 wow, how on Earth are we gonna make this? 20 00:00:40,110 --> 00:00:43,250 How on Earth can we tell this story properly? 21 00:00:43,250 --> 00:00:45,220 And I knew I had to do it. 22 00:00:45,220 --> 00:00:47,620 - [Narrator] The tale I have to tell 23 00:00:47,620 --> 00:00:49,807 is quite a different one. 24 00:00:49,807 --> 00:00:51,430 - "The Long Song" means a lot to me 25 00:00:51,430 --> 00:00:53,970 because of the heritage that it taps into, 26 00:00:53,970 --> 00:00:55,170 which is also mine. 27 00:00:55,170 --> 00:00:57,040 My mother is Jamaican. 28 00:00:57,040 --> 00:00:58,240 My grandmother is Jamaican. 29 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:00,070 My mom came here at 17. 30 00:01:00,070 --> 00:01:04,610 Stories like this really make me proud to be Jamaican, 31 00:01:04,610 --> 00:01:06,230 because even though it's fictional, 32 00:01:06,230 --> 00:01:08,750 the real rebellion did happen. 33 00:01:08,750 --> 00:01:11,200 It's a really, really inspiring job. 34 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:13,540 - Think we learned a lot through the material, 35 00:01:13,540 --> 00:01:15,980 through talking about what it means 36 00:01:15,980 --> 00:01:19,800 to be a Black woman or a Black man. 37 00:01:19,800 --> 00:01:22,570 And I think the actors themselves were engaging with that. 38 00:01:22,570 --> 00:01:24,180 - Because of the subject matter, 39 00:01:24,180 --> 00:01:26,580 we knew that we sort of had a collective responsibility 40 00:01:26,580 --> 00:01:29,330 to tell the story and and take it seriously, 41 00:01:29,330 --> 00:01:32,299 but not take ourselves seriously at the same time. 42 00:01:32,299 --> 00:01:34,970 - Familiarity is just, it's useful, 43 00:01:34,970 --> 00:01:37,030 'cause you become kind of more comfortable 44 00:01:37,030 --> 00:01:39,770 with each other, just as yourselves. 45 00:01:39,770 --> 00:01:41,380 - He does not want to see you. 46 00:01:41,380 --> 00:01:44,260 - Certain things that Caroline does are so awful. 47 00:01:44,260 --> 00:01:45,437 And when I was reading it, going, 48 00:01:45,437 --> 00:01:47,120 "I don't know how I'm gonna do this 49 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:50,190 and not feel like my skin's crawling afterwards." 50 00:01:50,190 --> 00:01:52,340 But because there's like a playfulness and a trust there, 51 00:01:52,340 --> 00:01:53,730 we know that it was all done for the love 52 00:01:53,730 --> 00:01:56,273 of wanting to share a great story with each other. 53 00:01:57,290 --> 00:02:00,730 - People get a bit frightened about whether it's okay 54 00:02:00,730 --> 00:02:04,400 to represent how we were treated back in the day, 55 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:07,610 but we say bring it on, show it, tell the stories. 56 00:02:07,610 --> 00:02:08,930 It's important that people know. 57 00:02:08,930 --> 00:02:10,410 - It's challenging material. 58 00:02:10,410 --> 00:02:12,850 I think Andrea wanted it to be challenging. 59 00:02:12,850 --> 00:02:14,780 I think we want it to be challenging, 60 00:02:14,780 --> 00:02:17,140 but we also want people to (laughs) love it, 61 00:02:17,140 --> 00:02:18,580 because it's important. 62 00:02:18,580 --> 00:02:21,470 - It's really sad, but there's so much joy 63 00:02:21,470 --> 00:02:22,550 and humor and light in it, 64 00:02:22,550 --> 00:02:24,740 which kind of maybe gives, 65 00:02:24,740 --> 00:02:26,780 deceives people into taking it in a bit more. 66 00:02:26,780 --> 00:02:28,270 And I hope people, it will hit, 67 00:02:28,270 --> 00:02:31,550 the motifs will hit and people will recognize that actually, 68 00:02:31,550 --> 00:02:33,950 the course of the world doesn't change by itself. 69 00:02:33,950 --> 00:02:36,113 Radical moments that happen, 70 00:02:37,180 --> 00:02:38,570 that allow us to move forward. 71 00:02:38,570 --> 00:02:39,617 - And I've heard people say, 72 00:02:39,617 --> 00:02:42,770 "Oh, we don't want to, it's too hard to watch. 73 00:02:42,770 --> 00:02:45,420 These stories are too difficult to engage in. 74 00:02:45,420 --> 00:02:48,010 It's other, it's such a terrible experience, 75 00:02:48,010 --> 00:02:49,750 it must belong over there." 76 00:02:49,750 --> 00:02:51,700 And what Andrea, I think, wanted to do, 77 00:02:51,700 --> 00:02:53,777 and what we wanted to do was say, 78 00:02:53,777 --> 00:02:56,690 "No, humans experienced this," 79 00:02:56,690 --> 00:03:01,050 and remind people that people have lives 80 00:03:01,050 --> 00:03:03,210 outside of the trauma, 81 00:03:03,210 --> 00:03:05,120 and ways of surviving that, 82 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:07,790 which is beautiful and brilliant, 83 00:03:07,790 --> 00:03:09,660 despite all the tragedy is, 84 00:03:09,660 --> 00:03:12,320 is a beautiful courage, is tenacity. 85 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:14,380 And that is a really exciting way 86 00:03:14,380 --> 00:03:19,101 of getting into a very challenging subject. 87 00:03:19,101 --> 00:03:22,434 (soft orchestral music)