The accolade of the first interracial kiss has often been wrongly attributed to an episode of Emergency Ward 10 broadcast in 1964, between characters Joan Hooley and John White.
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You In Your Small Corner was first broadcast on ITV in June 1962 and told the story of a young man called Dave (Lloyd Reckord) arriving in Brixton from Jamaica, stopping off on his way to begin studying in Cambridge. More accurately it should go to the young doctors Giles Farmer and Louise Mahler on Emergency Ward 10.
The first interracial kiss broadcast on British television has been uncovered by the British Film Institute.
The play aired years before the famous 1968 Star Trek scene starring William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols – believed to be the first interracial kiss on U.S. TV.
It was an adaptation of a play by Jamaican-born Barry Reckord, which had originally been staged at the Royal Court, and saw an on-screen kiss between actors Lloyd Reckord, the playwright’s brother, and Elizabeth MacLennan. “I looked at the date and realised its significance”, he said.
It was rediscovered in the BFI’s National Archive.
“50 years on, diverse on-screen representation is still an urgent issue and we must continue as an industry to affect much-needed change”. He gradually becomes ashamed of her because she can not contend with his intellectual friends.
“It subverted what the viewing public of the time was expecting”, said Prince. At the time, the Coventry Evening Telegraph described the play as “intelligent, original, and thought-provoking”. But there were a “few abusive letters” sent and the BFI is researching how big the outcry was to a scene, until now, that has always been forgotten.
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The footage was found in the BFI’s National Archive during research for an upcoming event on race and romance in television.
