The Windrush is one of the most important events in modern British history, nearly everyone agrees on that.
But here is the point that few people realise. One of the reasons its importance has been passed down from generation to generation is because a nameless TV news editor decided to send a camera crew down to the docks and film it.
Imagine if it hadn’t been filmed, photographed or written about by journalists at the time. In all likelihood, its significance would have been lost forever. We would be poorer as a nation – not just black people, but everyone.
Only one per cent of TV directors making prime-time programmes are black.
That in a nutshell sums up why I fight for media diversity.
Without media diversity, both the people working behind the camera and the people the audience see on their screens, who knows what important stories we are missing? Who knows what future historical events are being lost forever?
The fact is less than five per cent of people who work in the British film industry are people of colour, and only one per cent of TV directors making prime-time programmes (the very type of people who would have filmed the Windrush arrival) are black.