Ridley Road- surely the wrong time.

I think we all know that books do not translate directly onto the screen. I felt the first episode was excellent. For me, it will be worth following.

It seems picky to start criticising it after one episode. Surely, you either decide to watch or not watch.

No piece of drama will satisfy everyone.

trisher Well, if Netty and Barb’s names have been changed from Levy and Wiseman (or Weissman*) to Jones and Watson, it certainly sounds so.

* I'm listening so can't see the words on the page.

I’m half way through the audio book which is essentially (so far) a very lightweight romance full of clichéd dialogue and cartoon East End salt-of-the earth characters and a lot of waffle about hairdressing and finger-painting jam onto bread in Netty’s kitchen (!!!)… but the kernel of the story of the 43 and 62 groups and the NSM is there.

Vivien Epstein is a silly, giddy girl who, I suspect would would never attract serious Times investigative journalist Jack Fox/Morris in real life. The name change is soon explained but you can see it coming a mile off.

I haven’t watched the TV drama yet but I’m guessing Sarah Solemani has just taken the serious element and developed it into something darker. Would that be right? I’ve read Lucy Mangan’s Guardian review and it sounds like Solemani has made a lot of changes.

Here’s the thing that worries me. The text of Jordan’s speech is easy to find online and it is littered with references to The Coloured Invasion of Britain (this is mentioned in the book) which he and his party insist is a Jewish plot to provide their businesses with cheap labour which will undermine British wages and living standards and that black and white people will breed together to create a “mongrel race”. It’s repulsive stuff. If this has been admitted from the dialogue and visuals (has it?) it’s a deliberate and bad omission (imo) and distorts what the NSM were saying and doing. To Jordan and the NSM, Jews and black people were all part of the same problem.

Anniebach

Why would the BBC want to dilute the Jewish element in a drama about anti semitism?

We can only speculate about that, but changing Jewish names to more English ones is surely diluting the Jewish element isn't it?

To Jordan and the NSM, Jews and black people were all part of the same problem.
Thanks Early I think that is the main problem and it seems the BBC is now perpetuating that by diluting the black and Jewish element it seems such an odd thing to do.

Firstly, I’m saving the series until all episodes have been broadcast and I wasn’t aware that it was advertised as part of black history month.

As it is set in 1962 the memories of the Holocaust would still have been at the forefront of many people’s understanding of anti-semitism. The battle of Cable Street took place in 1936 to prevent Moseley’s fascists from marching through the East End.

It wasn’t until 1968 and Powell’s rivers of blood speech that the problems of the black community came to the forefront in the national media.

Yes, of course the Black communities suffered from racism just as the Jewish community or many others had done before them.

I would have thought that during Black History Month it would have been more appropriate to examine the privations of the West Indian and Asian communities in urban areas.

trisher

Anniebach

Why would the BBC want to dilute the Jewish element in a drama about anti semitism?

We can only speculate about that, but changing Jewish names to more English ones is surely diluting the Jewish element isn't it?

Over time, many immigrants have changed their names to become more British to avoid racism.

trisher

Anniebach

Why would the BBC want to dilute the Jewish element in a drama about anti semitism?

We can only speculate about that, but changing Jewish names to more English ones is surely diluting the Jewish element isn't it?

Unfortunately that is what Jewish people felt they had to do, so their names would fir it, ?

Fit.

If you read the full text of Jordan's July 1 1962 Trafalgar Square speech you will see that he uses the word Coloured no less than 28 times, fourteen of those in the phrase Coloured Invasion - his capitals.

No, LincsLass. That's not what I meant. In the novel Ridley Road Vivien Epstein's landlady and employer are Netty Levy and Barb Wiseman and are Jewish. trisher and I are questioning why the names have been changed for the dramatisation.

This is a very interesting discussion. We can only speculate as to why the BBC changed this or that, but it is certainly true that many Jewish people Anglicised (is that the right spelling?) their names so that they would not sound Jewish. Remember it was less than twenty years since the war and the Holocaust ended. I’ve never read this book, but when books are turned into drama, things often appear to be different from the book. Some people like the changes, others don’t. Anyway I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the series. As Pippa says, no piece of drama will satisfy everyone.

Actually as a drama I quite enjoyed it. And some of the period features were great, there was a close up of her shoes and I had some exactly like them. I can enjoy things and still look at them carefully.

Early

No, LincsLass. That's not what I meant. In the novel Ridley Road Vivien Epstein's landlady and employer are Netty Levy and Barb Wiseman and are Jewish. trisher and I are questioning why the names have been changed for the dramatisation.

You need to see it to the end before commenting on that, really. It is all on iPlayer.

I thought the last episode was a bit silly, but overall it was a good drama, if a bit heavy on the 'in case you don't understand why this is important, I will have a character explain it in simple language' dialogue.

Doodledog

Early

No, LincsLass. That's not what I meant. In the novel Ridley Road Vivien Epstein's landlady and employer are Netty Levy and Barb Wiseman and are Jewish. trisher and I are questioning why the names have been changed for the dramatisation.

You need to see it to the end before commenting on that, really. It is all on iPlayer.

I thought the last episode was a bit silly, but overall it was a good drama, if a bit heavy on the 'in case you don't understand why this is important, I will have a character explain it in simple language' dialogue.

I didn’t realise it was all on iPlayer. It’s on my list

Having read all the comments, I'm going to reserve final judgement until I've managed to fight my way to the end of this annoyingly saccharine book and watched the dramatisation. I'm hoping it will explain why Bloom writes Vivien as such a silly, empty-headed, young woman for the first half of the story. Surrounded by anti-fascist activists all she can think about is hairdressing and romance.

The actress Tracey Ann Oberman, who is Jewish and one of the actors in the programme ,said on a recent interview that it is 85 years since the Battle of Cable Street happened which was basically the fascist black shirts v the Jewish community in the East End of London (simply put) so may be why it is being shown at this time.

On Sunday Oct. 4, 1936, Mosley led his Blackshirt supporters on a march through the East End, following months of BUF meetings and leafleting in the area designed to intimidate Jewish people and break up the East End’s community solidarity. Despite a petition signed by 100,000 people, the British government permitted the march to go ahead and designated 7,000 members of the police force to accompany it. The counter-protest from the Cable Street community involved members from the Jewish and Irish communities, local workers and local Labor and Communist parties, who succeeded in disbanding the BUF march. As TIME reported in the magazine’s Oct. 12 issue 1936, in an article called “Mosley Shall Not Pass!”:

Just some info about this.

Early

No, LincsLass. That's not what I meant. In the novel Ridley Road Vivien Epstein's landlady and employer are Netty Levy and Barb Wiseman and are Jewish. trisher and I are questioning why the names have been changed for the dramatisation.

Beg your pardon, haven’t read the book, do wonder why then.

I watched it all today, I thought it was really good (though upsetting obviously)

Just popping in to say I have reached the end of what may be the worst book I have read in a very long time. The only relationship between the book and the drama is the character Vivien Epstein. Her entire backstory has been changed as have almost all the characters and the entire plot. Beware if you decide to buy the book.

Thanks Early I was wonderng if it was worth reading. I think I'll give it a miss. I will watch the rest of the series.

Hi trisher. Some more thoughts …

The book now has a new cover to tie it to the TV series. Here’s the old one. Anyone watching then reading the book is in for a surprise and disappointment. Don’t expect much more than a light read which focuses more on hair styling, clothes and girly gossip than it does on black and Jewish persecution. Bloom is much more interested in portraying woman as a-political airheads and clumsily shoehorning in references to 1960s culture at every opportunity. Men fighting in the streets and Vivien goes out to buy a Jubbly!

Going back to your original post. In a way it is entirely appropriate that this be shown during Black History Month so that people might look at what was was really happening in 1962, what the NSM were saying and doing and how they promulgated hatred and violence against black and Jewish people.

I grew up in North London (only a few miles from Stamford Hill and Dalston) but was only seven in 1962 so these events passed me by. I wonder if there are any women here who remember these events and know anything about women’s active involvement in them? Not street-fighting (but maybe they did) but behind the scenes.

The old book cover didn't post. Trying again:

And now it's there twice!

You could be right Early I would have liked to see a few more references to the black racism as well.
It sounds as if the TV series is better than the book anyway.