One-time 60s swingers who can’t get through a day without a nap, have a chance to awaken the days of their youth with the BBC TV drama serial, ‘Ridley Road’.
The four-part thriller, set in London during the rise of second wave post-war fascism, has been adapted from a 2014 debut novel by Jo Bloom that has won unstinting praise from the public with warm but mixed professional reviews.
Her agent said: “She was inspired to write her novel after hearing about the 62 Group, the group of Jewish men who took to the streets to fight fascism in the early sixties in London.
“Jo has worked as a freelancer in the communications field for over twenty years, with a focus on arts publicity and e-learning. She also contributed to the book review section of ‘Time Out’, London for a few years. Prior to this, she lived and worked in Prague and New York. She now lives in Brighton with her family”.
Renewed interest in Bloom’s story and the reality behind it became yet more pertinent this past week, not only because of the deep antisemitism still evident in UK Labour Party ranks but when it was announced - from the other end of the political spectrum - that the far-right, anti-immigration group, Britain First had been re-registered as a political party.
Indeed, when interviewed in 2016 about her book and her working process, Bloom explained that she was ‘guided’ by her friend and researcher, Steve Silver, a former editor at the anti-fascist magazine, ‘Searchlight’.
It is interesting that Bloom’s heroine moves to London from Manchester where in real-life there had been immediate post-war anti-Jewish riots and where on 30 July 1962, Sir Oswald Mosley was knocked to the ground and punched and hit by stones and fruit thrown during a march and public meeting held by his Union Movement.
However, this riot was as much about black immigration as antisemitism and it is unclear from a Guardian newspaper archive report whether, in the face of such strong opposition, Mosley was ever permitted to book the city’s Free Trade Hall for a public meeting. Despite such strong local opposition, in 1934 Mosley’s original British Union of Fascists inaugurated its northern regional headquarters at 17 Northumberland Street, Higher Broughton, Salford, an area now populated by strictly Orthodox Jews.
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‘Ridley Road’ begins tomorrow, Sunday 03 October 2021 on BBC One at 9 p.m. BST (11.00 p.m. Israel time) and is due for released as a box set on BBC iPlayer.
Readers and viewers who have read Bloom’s novel and or seen the TV show are welcome to comment.
NATALIE WOOD
02 OCTOBER 2021