TV DRAMA-DOCS

A Touch of Churchill, A Touch of Hitler 
Director: Anthony Thomas, BBC, 1980

Black As Hell, Thick As Grass
Director: Michel Pearce, 1979

Cecil Rhodes might have been a hero to some, but the man who gave his name to Rhodesia is castigated mercilessly by Griffith, who also indicts British politicians and industrialists in this story of unbridled greed. Long before BBC mounted an expensive multi-part documentary, Griffith had in this small film,  burrowed into late 19^th century/early 20^th century history to emerge with this astute,  tenacious study of the machinations which prompted the Boer War after the catastrophic failure of the notorious 1896 Jameson Raid. Griffith is a fierce propagandist for the Boers here (he was always a keen collector of Boer War memorabilia) and he presented his case at great length in his book Thank God We Kept the Flag Flying, focussing  on the Relief of Ladysmith.

Black As Hell… was Griffith’s take on the Zulu wars and their causes and as usual the Welshman’s often provocative , anti-Colonialist stance and views on motivation are  backed up by facts, as he tills surprisingly new ground in revisiting those resonant battles at Isandlwana and, in 1879, Rorkes Drift (setting for the 1964 Stanley Baker movie Zulu).

Dave Berry