WORLDWIDE FM

This month Haseeb is joined by esteemed actor, Trevor Laird.

Having played the roles of Ferdy in Fran Roddam’s ‘Quadrophenia’ and Beefy in Franco Rosso’s ‘Babylon’, the pair speak about Trevor’s pivotal involvement in two of the most significant cultural films in British history. They aim to understand how being an actor has informed Trevor’s insights of different cultures and identities; speaking in depth about his experience of Mod and Reggae culture in 70s London.

Arguably the first British-born black actor with a UK accent on screen, Trevor shares his insights of being a young black man in a very white industry in the 70s, and talks of what this taught him. From being withdrawn from shooting a sex scene in Quadrophenia because of the fears and stigma surrounding the portrayal of inter-racial intimacy, to not being able to shoot scenes of Babylon on certain streets of Deptford and Lewisham due to them being racist no-go zones, and Babylon getting banned in USA from 1980 to 2019. Trevor observes the impact of these experiences on his younger self and reflects on his role as a minority figure, yet how he’s continued to thrive amongst all the obstacles.

They speak of how the industry’s changed throughout his career, and the role that technology is playing in depleting grassroots theatre / cinema, impacting its accessibility for working class people, as Trevor references his time at the Ana Scher Theatre School in Islington when growing up.

Alongside this in-depth chat, Trevor picks out a selection of tunes that trace the stories he shares.

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