Jas Mitra and Marcus Hill, a couple steeped in the British Black Panthers and Race Today Collective, spring Dhari Bishop from prison and go underground as the Immigration Act 1971 tightens its grip. Across six episodes the cell plots bombings, bank raids and safe-house switches while their relationship frays under police heat and internal politics. Freida Pinto’s Jas, modelled on Panther member Mala Sen, drives the ideology; Babou Ceesay’s Marcus questions the cost; Idris Elba’s Kent, a smooth exile, bankrolls the war. John Ridley wrote five instalments and directs the opener, closer and the brutal midpoint where an informant is executed on the Thames mudflats at dawn.
Controversy flared before transmission: former Panthers protested that black women who led the movement were sidelined, reduced to Wunmi Mosaku’s Kenya, a sex worker servicing the Met’s chief investigator. Elizabeth Obi called the erasure “unforgivable”; Neil Kenlock and Farrukh Dhondy, script consultants, defended the casting of an Asian woman at the centre, citing 20 Asian sisters in leadership roles. Sky Atlantic debuted the series on 13 April 2017; Showtime followed three days later. Max Richter’s score threads Moog dread under soul cuts from the era, and Ari Wegner’s 16 mm photography turns tower blocks into grainy monuments. Reviews landed at 75 % on Rotten Tomatoes, praising the mood while noting the blind spot. The cell is eventually smashed, but the final shot lingers on Jas, alone, spray-painting slogans across a shuttered Brixton shopfront as sirens converge.
Production Details
Sky Atlantic / 1 Season / 6 Episodes / 2017
Created by: John Ridley
Showrunner(s): Anne Mensah, Katie Swinden, Idris Elba
Writer(s): John Ridley, Misan Sagay
Producer(s): Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo
Cinematography: Ramsey Nickell, Giulio Biccari
Music: Max Richter
Main Cast
Freida Pinto as Jas Mitra
Babou Ceesay as Marcus
Idris Elba as Kent
Daniel Mays as Cullen
Nicholas Pinnock as Julian
Wunmi Mosaku as Kenya
Rob Jarvis as Ackerley
Neve McIntosh as Emily Pence
Seeta Indrani as Savi Mitra
Abraham Lewis as Ronnie Pence
Giorgio Spiegelfeld as Klaus
Patrick Gibson as Connor Fallon
