Steve McQueen says British film industry ‘didn’t care enough – full stop’ about Black talent

Filmmaker’s groundbreaking new series, Small Axe, is coming to BBC One

Steve McQueen has commented on the British film and TV industry’s failure to embrace its Black talent.

The 12 Years a Slave director made the comments ahead of his groundbreaking new film series, Small Axe, premiering on BBC One on 15 November.

When asked by David Hare of Homeland fame, in a Guardian piece, why British Black actors continue to have to look to America in order to further their careers, McQueen said of the UK industry: “Because they didn’t care enough. That’s it, really. The people in positions of real power and influence higher up in the industry didn’t care enough. Full stop.  

“They don’t care, so we have to do it ourselves.”

McQueen’s new anthology series comprises five separate films, which each tell different stories of Caribbean people living in London from the 1960s to the 1980s.

Read a guide to the series, which stars John Boyega and Letitia Wright, here.

Boyega, who plays a police officer who attempted to reform the force, recently revealed he was “so fuming” during one racism scene he doesn’t remember filming it.