490 Roots

First  viewed  : 31  May  1981

When  Dallas   finished  for  the  summer  ( with  Mary  Crosby  floating  upside  down  in  the  Southfork  swimming  pool ) BBC 1  replaced  it  with  a  back  to  back  repeat  run  of  the  two  series  of  Roots  (originally  shown  in  1977  and  1979 ).

The  Roots  story  was one  of  the  cultural  phenomena  of  the  seventies. Journalist  Alex  Haley  who  made  his  name  interviewing  major  public  figures  ( Malcolm X, Martin  Luther  King, Muhammad  Ali, Johnny  Carson ) for  Playboy  magazine. published  his  novel  Roots : The  Saga  of  an  American  Family   which  recounted  the  story  of  his  family  going  right  back  to  his Mandinka  ancestor  Kunta  Kinte  brought  to  America  as  a  slave  and  ending  with  the  author  successfully  pinpointing  his  origins  in  The  Gambia. It  became  an  instant  bestseller  and  the  original  TV  series  broke  records  in  the  US. I  didn't  watch  it  first  time  round  but  was  well  aware  of  the  hoo-ha  around  it , not  least  through  the  parody  version in  an  episode  of  The  Goodies. 

It's  since  been  established  that  Haley's  story  was  largely  a  work  of  fiction, the  product  of  plaigiarism,  sloppy  research,  and  wishful  thinking,   Nevertheless  it  made  gripping  drama  as  the  family  lived  through  the  humiliations  of  slavery, the  American  Civil  War, lynch  mobs, Ku  Klux  Klan   and  more  subtle  discrimination. I  missed  the  first  three  episodes  this  time  round  probably  due  to  O  Level  revision  but  was  hooked  from  the  fourth  episode  on.

That  meant  I  missed  most  of  the  story  of  Kunta  himself  as  he  and  his  daughter  Kizzy  ( Lesley  Uggams ) were  separated  in  that  episode  when  she  was  sold  to  a  new  owner  Tom  Moore  ( Chuck  Connors ). The  dramatic   denouement  of  that  episode  was  Moore's  rape  of  Kizzy  on  her  first  night  there  , probably  the  most  shocking  moment  of  the  entire  series  although  there  was  an  horrific  lynching  a  few  episodes  on,  orchestrated  by  the  series  chief  villain  Earl  Crowther  ( the  reliable  Paul  Koslo ). His  own  eventual  murder  was  one  of  the  most  satisfying  come-uppances  in  TV  history.

After  Kunta , the  most  memorable  of  the  black  characters  was  his  grandson  Chicken  George  ( Ben  Vereen  )  who  wins  his  freedom  and  improves  the  lot  of  his  family  by  becoming  expert  at  training  cocks  for  fighting.

After  the  phenomenal  success  of  the  first  series , the  second  one  had  a  much  higher  budget  and  the  likes  of  Henry  Fonda , James  Earl  Jones  and  Marlon  Brando  dropping  in  to  play  cameo  roles. It  suffered  a  little  through  the  events  being  not  quite  so  traumatic  as  we  moved  into  the  twentieth  century   but   it  still  held  your  interest.