Ridley Road- surely the wrong time.

I was living in SE London as a young teenager in 1962 and I remember being very upset by a group that met in Lewisham in the street and shouted abuse against black people, mainly Jamaicans in those days. Being naive I attempted to defend them and ask why they were doing that and got abused , spat on and called a n..gger lover. I was 14 years old and it was my first inkling that such vile people existed. There was nothing said about Jewish people though.

Thanks from me too,*Franbern*. Much admiration for the part you and your friends played.
.I've just found this thread and I'm going to catch up on the series.
I was living and working in Hackney in the early 60s, in a Jewish neighbourhood probably just before all this blew up .

I’ve just watched the last episode of the excellent series. The old woman who rented out her room was the actress Rita Tushingham, I knew I recognised her.

Just to say that I have now managed to find some photos that I took both at the Jordan Rally - and also of five us 'filibustering' in Ridley ROad, on the early morning of the day which would become known as the Battle of Ridley Road. As I have said in previous post. there was a very large anti-fascist gathering that Sunday in Totteham (a few miles away), as Mosley had widely advertised that he was speaking there. My YS group had recei ved informtion this was a scam, and he intended to hold a large meeting in Ridley Road. We received this information late on the Saturday night, and neither the 62 group or any of the other anti-fascist groups would believe us, so we started filibustering at about 6.00 am,.

It was nearly midday when Mosley's son, Max Mosley turned up in his sports car, with some mates, meaning to set things up for his father, and discovered that we had put the kybosh on that.
I am in touch with many people from that period, and we are trying to to put together a real-life version of what happened them. Would like to also mention Gerry Ross and his organisation of ex-war veterans, who was foremost in the battle against the re-insurgance of fascism in East London during this time. Far better response that the 62 group.

Although the tv series may have strayed from the facts ( thanks Franbern for your interesting account) , at least it highlighted the vile anti facist behaviour in the 60s of which I’m sure many of us were ignorant .
Can anyone explain why Vivian had to have a German passport at the end?

Sorry , of course I meant facist behaviour

* Atqui* - I think Vivien was going to fly to Israel. with Jack.
Don't know about the German passport - I never noticed that

The passport belonged to Vivian's cousin, who was German.

Ah …Thank you I love cheese

Why did Vivien need a fake passport? Surely anyone could fly to Israel in the sixties and why would it be a long time before she could contact her parents?

What did I miss?

In those days there was a lot of communication between Israel and Germany. And other countries . About compensation to Jews for their family losses during the Holocaust.
We have a Jewish family name and around 2000 I had a phone call ( here in UK) asking if we had ever owned a house in Berlin which had been taken over by the Nazis in WW2. In which case we could claim compensation. I had to answer no. But there are still many Jews here who are refugees from Germany.
Germany still pays these elderly people a small pension.

ps
Merlotgran I think Vivien and Jack needed to take refuge in Israel because Colin Jordan's group would be looking for them to take revenge.

I may be wrong, but I got the impression that they were going under cover to Germany to fight the fight over there.

A possible series 2?

I thought that as well.

Franbern Great to know you are trying to make a true-life version. Do keep GN informed and if you could start a thread about direct action and post some photos it would be great.

I was a little worried about the "glamorisation" of Colin Jordan. As far as I can find out he had no children. His marriage to a neice of Dior only lasted a few months and it didn't happen until after his imprisonment. According to Wiki she left him because he was too "bourgeois". So why was he given a son and was he made more attractive?