# Small Axe (2020)

> Five standalone stories follow London's West Indian community from the late 1960s to the early 1980s, dramatizing racism, policing and resilience through its friends and families.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/76871

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 5
- Episode runtime: 70 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: drama, history
- Created by: Steve McQueen
- Network: BBC One
- Cast: Letitia Wright, Shaun Parkes, Malachi Kirby, Rochenda Sandall, Jack Lowden, Sam Spruell, Gershwyn Eustache Jnr, Nathaniel Martello-White
- TMDB rating: 7.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3464896/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: patient, warm, tense, defiant, melancholic

## What critics say

Audiences rate the anthology positively, valuing its committed portrayal of London's West Indian community and its historical specificity.

## Synopsis

Small Axe (2020) is a British anthology miniseries created by Steve McQueen for BBC One. Its five feature-length episodes, each around seventy minutes, follow friends and families in London's West Indian community from the late 1960s into the early 1980s. Letitia Wright plays Altheia Jones, Shaun Parkes plays Frank Crichlow, Malachi Kirby plays Darcus Howe, and Rochenda Sandall plays Barbara Beese, with Jack Lowden and Sam Spruell appearing as figures on the other side of the city's tensions. Each story is self-contained, following its own cast through the pressures of policing, housing, schooling and community organizing, so the series builds a mosaic rather than one continuing plot. The atmosphere is patient and observational, grounded in everyday warmth, music, food and family life, while the injustice it depicts stays quietly persistent. Fans of Top Boy and When They See Us will find resonance in its grounded social drama and its attention to marginalized communities. Viewers drawn to Fargo's anthology form and character-driven storytelling will also find kinship here in this single, carefully crafted limited run.

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