主播大秀

Not much has really changed since those far off days. My wife is Hong Kong Chinese holding a British National Overseas passport (her full British passport having been taken away due to fears of Britain being overrun by Chinese). We have been together for 16 years and married for 8 yet the process we had to go through for me to bring her with me to my homeland was onerous and invasive to be polite about it. Even after all we went through to get "permission" for us to live together we were only granted 27 months and have to go through it all again in a year's time. I thought we had learned the lessons of the past and were a true multi-racial society. I have only one polite answer to that - poppycock !

Why is the 主播大秀 wasting money on a such a broken and forgotten about subject at a time when the Government is trying to save tax payers money ? Multiculturalism does not work in this country. Mr. Cameron is right about that. Expensive and long winded television reports of this sort only add to everyone's misery. I am not a member of BNP or some other organisation of that sort but I can see why they are gaining so much ground in a country where rioting in the streets or other unrest is considered to be normal. Perhaps it might have been a more appropriate to show someone slapping their own bald head to music ? Someone in the background to singing with words like "Lah ! Lah ! La La La !. The deep fried Mars bar could be discussed by someone like Raymond Blanc as a way of showing that multiculturalism works in England.

Thank you for providing me with interesting and vital background information for my dissertation. As a British girl who is currently in a relationship with a guy from Pakistan, I have become increasingly interested in multiculturalism and cultural hybridity. I find the subject rather interesting, and dream of the day of when I and my partner will have children. I have learnt a lot already in this first episode and very much looking forward to the other two episodes!

My grandmother (Welsh) married my grandfather (west indian) in 1921 and she also related to me how difficult it was in those days. Often she would not be served in shops and was often rebuked in the street. I always felt she was a person ahead of the times. When I was in school as a small child often my teachers would make nasty comments about my family in front of the whole class. Myself I felt nothing was abnormal I was brought up in a very loving family environment and as my grandparents had 9 children they related that it was very difficult for them too. However, later in years the family was respected by the community. It was felt in the past that people of different ethenicity was coming in and taking the jobs of the british people yet nothing has changed this is still being said and people actually believe this. When will people actually realise that if they want to work it is there. Multicultural society has actually provided so much to this country and we should learn by the past that these people have so much to offer. If we did not have them many businesses would not survive. Where would we be without this?

The programme was really informative and revealed the truth behind mixed marriages. I have been in a mixed marriage for nearly 30 years with two great sons and one grandchild, mixed West Indian, Italian and British! I remember my Father telling me that mixed race children grew up muddled, not knowing where they belong. This has certainly never been the case and my family is a happy, enriched and loving one. I take my hat off to all those women who were strong enough to withstand the ridiculous onlslaught they had to put up with for loving another human being of their choice. Well done 主播大秀, about time the truth was heard.

A wonderful first episode. Look forward to the other ones.
It's a good account of the 'visible' mixes in British society, of course, Britain has always been a "creole" society in this way with various mixes from the continent. As an aside - contrary to popular belief, most people in Britain have a mix of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and other lineages. Most Italian and Mediterranean people are mixed race as well while we're on that subject. When people comment that I look Italian (as a result of my mixes) I say: "yes, Italian people do look mixed".

Britain, and former colonies as in The Caribbean and Indian Ocean regions such as Jamaica and the Seychelles, can show what a wonderful mix of people we all are, and will be. The "Rainbow People" of Britain (to borrow Desmond Tutu's words!). Viva New Britain, multiculturalism does work, it depends how you define it. Multiculturalism to me means people mixing with each other, in all the ways that implies! Segregation never works and is anti-human. "We live together as Brothers (and sisters!), or perish together as fools" as Martin Luther King once wisely said.

I am a white European woman in a happy marriage with a West-African man since 1998. We have a girl together, and in addition we have had custody of his two West-African boys since 2002. Looking at the programme, one question came to mind: What should define a person as mixed? Should it be only the genetic background? I claim, that the mixture of cultures should be as important. Culturally, my stepsons (one adult now, the other mid-teen) said after viewing the programme that they feel of mixed heritage now, despite being ethnically African. They mix equally with whites and blacks, they enjoy both classical music, hiphop and African music, they are treated equally with their white peers at their majority white school and have joined the same sport clubs. I am sure there are many kids like them around.

The interview with the two old Liverpool Chinese-white ladies was filmed in my house.
It's not relevent but what an utterly charming man George Alagiah is off camera.
Anyway,I feared that some of the comments made by the ladies would end up on the cutting room floor as they didn't fit with what I thought was a preconceived agenda.
ie what a thoroughly miserable time it was in early 20th century Britain for all of mixed race.
One of the ladies said (quite unsolicited from George) 'if I had my life all over again I'd want exactly the same life'. Not only was it not edited out it was embraced by the editor and used to effect right at the end.
The programme is so much stronger and more authentic for it.
As George says in his blog ;he didn't want it to be a whinge fest about race. He also says he wanted to present the story he discovered as he went along and that,as far as I can see from my inside glimpse, is exactly what he's done,to his credit.

i live in a small village, im married to an african man and have two mixed race daughters, not very much has changed in these small villages i have had to move house due to racial abuse from all my neighbours in one area, i am currently looking to move again into a town where there are more mixed cultures. i am told im crazy and mad as i am with a black man, my two children are picked on for their colour i cant let them out the house to play not even in my garden as they get picked on by local children. my neighbours ask things about my husband and speak about him as if he is an alien. the thing i find most strange is that adults seem to love my children as they think they are 'cute' yet be totally racist towards an adult who is black.
britain needs to move forward in time not just in the big towns and cities but also in smaller villages people should be allowed to marry or be with who they want reguardless of culture or skin colour and be allowed to live where ever they want. my children were born in the town i live in and have the same rights as every other child here yet for some reason they are still seen as being foreign!!

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Very interesting programe, who else but the 主播大秀 would make it? Sad to read some of the comments above. Racism still exists, it is clear from both the commentors who have been a victim of it and the rather paranoid post about white people being wiped out. Where to start? In a population where the vast majority are white there is no chance of white people being "wiped out" by inter-marriage. If you're interested to read my not-for-profit review click here

I am always glad when I see something appear on mainstream television that appears to be attempting to make intelligent comment issues. However for a great number of people in Britain (indeed the world), all of this rather old hat. We know about most of what has been presented in this programme. As an artist I make work about the inter-connectedness and social/historical inheritances of people's lives today (especially black and white) and like so many other artists did during the 70's, 80's and 90's try through my work to talk about what has often been made into invisible history because it often makes people uncomfortable. As a mixed race person of Indian and African parents I found the programme supporting the position that only mixed race people of white/other descent are valid under the term mixed race, and I was disappointed to hear the bravery of white women foregrounded as something mighty when in fact anyone of colour who chooses to be in a marriage or relationship with a white person faces exactly the same barriers and challenges as any white woman or man who enters into a mixed race relationship and have offspring. Neither of my parents are white. I am mixed race and I cannot help but think the bias of skin colour or the proof of a white parent as an all important ingredient in being recognised as mixed race still holds up whiteness as a form of racial superiority. However, I found the programme really engaging and look forward to viewing the next chapter.

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My parents are of different nationalities. My mother is from Sheffield, however my father is . They met before WWII and were horribly persecuted throughout the war due to his nationality. I guess this is a slightly different situation than just race alone, given the circumstances of the war, however both I and my parents can relate.

These so called racial melting pots only exist in prodomantly or what were once white countries, theres no mass migration into asia or africa, no breeding out of the indiginous people. European governments seem to be commmting voluntary genocide of their own race. People may want to celebrate mixed racial britain, not me,i dont celebrate races being wiped out!

I am mixed race myself, and I'm so glad that the 主播大秀 have aired this season. Keep up the good work, 主播大秀, and please don't pay any mind to those disgruntled sorts from Tunbridge Wells!

Hi everyone who has posted comments on the Mixed Britannia programme. My name is Nicky Mehta and my husband and I are both on the programme. We were both absolutely previllaged to be a part of a documentary that shows us all how lucky we all are living in this day and age where mixed relationships are no longer frowned upon. It was haert braking seeing footage from issues in the past and how 2 peope coming together in love got somuch grief just because of the colour of there skin.... Horrific and so sad :o(
I am Indian and my gorgeous hubby is white. We take the best bits out of both cultures nd make the rest up as we go along - works for us and we are so happy! Thanks to the Mixed Britannia crew, they have worked so hard to create this documentary. Thank you for having Nick and I be a part of your programme. Much love x

I was born in colonial Kenya 1950 and lived the apartheid system there black brown white not allowed to mix, coming to the UK in 70's and grew up with NATION FRONT RACISM on learning british history the word I recognised was Nazi, the programme tries to dilute the Nazi style white western superiority culture prevalent in the whole of the British Empire, thankfully it is now on the wane and as Asia rises it makes little sense to pursue this ideology.

A pity we had such a lightweight programme with obvious bias from George Alagiah. The sad fact is that the vast majority of mixed marriages are not between 2 people in the top 2% education wise and where one of them works for maybe 3 or 4 hours a day for maybe 4 days a week.

I would have expected to both have the alternate point of view reported and esp the fact that in the 1920s we were short of men because so many had been killed or seriously wounded by the 1st World War.

If one looks around the council estates and poorest areas why for example is is that the single mothers with kids are principally mixed race? Why are they so hugely over-represented in the prisons and courts?

George Alagiah was seemingly taken on board into the 主播大秀 when the 主播大秀 was desperate to take on women and non whites has had it very easy I would suggest and his lack of gravitas reflects his lightweight background. He is evidently a very nice person but little more judging by this so far fatuous programme

Your comment betrays your prejudice, Nicky. George Alagiah is an outstandingly well qualified journalist, and a genuine expert.

Why did'nt alagiah ask woman, what would have happened if her mother had eaten pork in front of her arab husband, instead he just sat there smilling as if it was acceptable that she could'nt, it was cringe worthy. Dont give up the day job george.

I am delighted and moved by this programme. This is my story, my parents' story and will be my son's story. The complexity of mixed race couples and the true bravery and defiance of the women is astonishing. My Italian Mother married my Mauritian Father at the beginning of the 1960's. I was a late baby growing up in London. I was called 'Paki', and adored the boy at school who called me 'spaghetti' because the insult showed he knew where I was from. The times were sad in many ways and it has taken me many years to be comfortable in my own skin. I teach a Reception Class now and about half of the children are from mixed backgrounds. I make sure we talk about it and celebrate it. It is an interesting and sometimes painful journey, but most definitely part of the British history. Thankyou for telling our story with joy, humour and care.

My wife, the daughter of an English planter and a Eurasian Malaya, came to Britain in 1966 following the polical changes in Malaya/Malaysia. From a highly priveleged and apparently seamless multicultural existance she was deposited in a Britain with outside toilets and tin baths in front of the fire. At school she was treated to stereotypical racist remarks - monkeys, mud huts etc.! And many of her teachers were no better.

How contradictory and confusing. Mother Britain, the cultural pillar of the empire, bathing in the kitchen and going outside for relief!

Sadly certain elements remain bigotted. Some are expressive, others silently hiding behind their net curtains. But this will change - no matter what social level we're talking about - it will change. Being in denial or feeling superior never helped anything or anybody and the sooner we are rid of these devisive mentalities the better the whole world will be!

This, your second programme, has been so moving! I married a Ghanaian in 1962. No family was present. My Jewish father had previously told me that my husband would 'wear me out with his inordinate sexual demands'. How I envy the woman in your programme whose mother told her that she had married for love and her daughter must too. My father refused to talk to me but my mother met me secretly although she was never happy with my choice. Only my grandmother, a Jewish refugee from the pogroms in Eastern Europe said that they should 'Let the girl do what she wants to do.'

Well, I'm 70 now with 2 mixed race children and 5 grandchildren. I had 9 happy years in Ghana where there was no resentment towards the British despite the history of imperialism. But your programme has brought back those days of 1962 as if they were yesterday.

South Africa we are classified Coloured. There are three types of Coloureds (Mix Race) found South Africa. The first group in to the south of the country, Khoisan mix to the north black mix to the east asian mix. Coloured we believe we the next step in human evolution. We are letting nature take it's course. No need to fight it.
Wayne Balie

I lived in the USA I would love to see this series. Is there a posibility if there would be a DVD of this show?

Simply good journalism George. Well Done. As a very average white bloke with not many coloureds in town it was an informative, clearly presented and even entertaining and educational insight into another side of racism. Your programme shouted loud and clear that racism isn't a simple case of black and white. It should be shown in every classroom. I'm sure you can keep this standard up whatever the subject George. Can't wait.

What a fantastic series, I have looked forward to Thursday nights for the last 3 weeks. Imagin my surprise when visiting the Peirhead in my own city of Liverpool. Something I have not done in a long time and lo a plaque to the forcefull repatriation of the Chinese seaman. I am ashamed to say, somthing I know nothing about. Well done George and thanks to all the people taking part. Good luck to the couple expecting thier new baby.

So apparently only 10% of the population disagree with people having mixed race children, rubbish, they only say this because they dont want to be accused of being racist. Lets face it, no man of any race likes to see their woman going with someone of a different race, even men with a different race partner dislike it, fact!

I tuned into this program by acident last night , but was soo glad i had , I am mixed race but was lucky enough not to have much rasicm against me , however my husband and I have adopted two mixed race children 11years ago and have been asked to adopt our odlest sons full sibling who is now nearly to , which is taking forever as we have to be matched as a good mixed race family for him to come to surely the fact we have had his brother in a loving warm family home should of been the answer to that instead it has taken 6 months upto now to see if we are even though we are apparently very much in demand because we are mixed family

The show seemed to tiptoe around a number of sensitive issues around mixed-race and said very little about the connections between mixed-race people in the UK and people of colour around the world. I'd recommend D. McNeil's Sex and Race in the Black Atlantic: Mulatto Devils and Multiracial Messiahs (London: Routledge, 2011) for a more comprehensive and in-depth study of mixed-race identities and racial mixing in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

I watched the whole of this series with great interest as I have mixed race twins. My twins are very different, one looks European and the other one Asian. This has provoked comments from various people since they were born, which continues to this day. I am no longer with their father and he has not had any involvement in their lives. This has been very hard for them as my family are white. Now I have remarried and I have another child. My husband is white and our child looks like him very much. My twins are very proud of their little brother but they are always asked if they are adopted as they do not have the same skin colour as the younger child. On reflection in my experience Britain still have a very long way to go, as there are people who are still very set in their ways with regards to attitudes to mixed race relationships. However I know that my children are growing up in the best place and this makes me very proud to be British.

I am a white woman married to a black man. I wept when I heard about the couples early in the 20th century who married the person they loved regardless of colour, race or nationality; I am filled with gratitude that their courageous stand paved the way for me and my huband to live a normal life with the person we love. Thank you for a wonderful programme.

I was sad to read some of the comments posted both those who continue to experience hatred and those remain negative and suspicious. I do think times have changed. I met my husband in 1988, it crossed my mind at the time that we might encounter some racist comments as he is half Sri Lankan. We have never encountered a single comment in all the years we have been together. We have two children and live in a fairly rural part of Scotland, yet my children's teacher is of mixed race, the school caretaker is of mixed race and my daughter's best friend is the caretaker's daughter. I'm increasingly colour blind and just don't notice the differences in the same way. I'm sorry others haven't had such a positive experience.

Congrats on George Aligiah's series. How good to have the subject not presented as Bad News - except, of course, for the misguided guidelines on inter-racial adoption.
Well done 主播大秀!

When one speaks of the fear of having his race wiped out through interracial relationships, it feels very much like a narrow view of what life really is. Love is blind and to deny yourself the love of a good woman or man because of racial prejudice is the real tragedy of life, Simon.

By the way, Simon Paul, if you have a chance, take a trip to Saigon or Bangkok. You will find that the melting pot culture happens there too and not just in 'White countries' as you commented.

Well done George Alagiah. I think that your 3 programme series was excellent. I very much doubt that, as an earlier comment stated, "We know about most of what has been presented in this programme". This was very thoughtfully put together, and touched on a number of issues which were handled very sensitively. Although clearly some progress has been made, a fair number of people in Britain (and indeed the the rest of the world) still have a long way to go in accepting people as they are without prejudice. A credit to the 主播大秀.

Very moving documentary. Very revealing about racial attitudes in earlier periods. It did seem to be about white women having relationships with foreign men. Where were the white men and foreign women?

I was born in 1925, in Birmingham. My mother was white, English, my father, with whom she bore four children, was black West Indian and my stepfather, with whom she had two more daughters, was black Nigerian.
I recorded the three programmes of Mixed Britannia and, being confined to bed because of illness, I have just finished watching the recordings. Regrettably, I am unable to relate to the feelings, histories or experiences of those who were recorded.
I have always been aware that problems existed since my parents were always fighting for equality for Negroes and were always holding meetings in our homes (we travelled extensively, in the British Isles and elsewhere). Having been privately educated, I was always aware that when my father tried to register my brothers and I at a new school, there would be no vacancies but my mother would, the following day, register us, under her maiden name, letting the Principal assume that we had not yet arrived in the town or city. This happened in, amongst others, Dumfries Academy, St. Aloysius College in Glasgow, Kilmarnock Academy and Aberdeen Grammar School. It was always my belief that this was not directly due to prejudice but to the fact that the school principals were afraid to try anything different because of insecurity about their jobs.
I am aware that one of my brothers and one of my sisters have always believed that colour has adversely affected their lives but I have never accepted this. At school I went to classmates' birthday parties and they came to mine. In Aberdeen, when it was learned that we were going to the West Indies on a business/holiday trip both of our class teachers asked if they could look after us while our parents were away - not exactly an example of mixed race difficulties! And we were sufficiently in love with our country to commence making plans to return to England on September 4th 1939.
My middle brother always resented the fact that his colour led to ill-treatment in the army - the same army which sent me to Sandhurst. He was also held back, later, in his career with an Insurance Company which promoted to the position of National Training Director!
My own opinion was that if I failed to land a particular job, it was because I wasn't good enough - no sensible employer can afford not to employ the best. If I missed out on promotion - I should have worked harder. My brain, not my colour is what distinguishes me from others.
I am not white; I am not black; I am not mixed race. Perhaps the reason why I do not%2

My last comment (40) was cut accidentally.
Here is the full comment:
鈥� At 18:03 23rd Oct 2011, Garvey Benson Humphrey wrote:
I was born in 1925, in Birmingham. My mother was white, English, my father, with whom she bore four children, was black West Indian and my stepfather, with whom she had two more daughters, was black Nigerian.
I recorded the three programmes of Mixed Britannia and, being confined to bed because of illness, I have just finished watching the recordings. Regrettably, I am unable to relate to the feelings, histories or experiences of those who were recorded.
I have always been aware that problems existed since my parents were always fighting for equality for Negroes and were always holding meetings in our homes (we travelled extensively, in the British Isles and elsewhere). Having been privately educated, I was always aware that when my father tried to register my brothers and I at a new school, there would be no vacancies but my mother would, the following day, register us, under her maiden name, letting the Principal assume that we had not yet arrived in the town or city. This happened in, amongst others, Dumfries Academy, St. Aloysius College in Glasgow, Kilmarnock Academy and Aberdeen Grammar School. It was always my belief that this was not directly due to prejudice but to the fact that the school principals were afraid to try anything different because of insecurity about their jobs.
I am aware that one of my brothers and one of my sisters have always believed that colour has adversely affected their lives but I have never accepted this. At school I went to classmates' birthday parties and they came to mine. In Aberdeen, when it was learned that we were going to the West Indies on a business/holiday trip both of our class teachers asked if they could look after us while our parents were away - not exactly an example of mixed race difficulties! And we were sufficiently in love with our country to commence making plans to return to England on September 4th 1939.
My middle brother always resented the fact that his colour led to ill-treatment in the army - the same army which sent me to Sandhurst. He was also held back, later, in his career with an Insurance Company which promoted to the position of National Training Director!
My own opinion was that if I failed to land a particular job, it was because I wasn't good enough - no sensible employer can afford not to employ the best. If I missed out on promotion - I should have worked harder. My brain, not my colour is what

yes your right app-artist and dont forget brazil, big melting pot there but mass migration is still mainly into prodomantly white countries. The white race is in decline, look at world health council stats. Any white person who chooses to have mixed race children is inching their race that little bit closer to extinction, obviously people are free to do has they choose but i feel its my duty to point out the facts before they do so. Im not a racist or supremacist, i just dont like seeing a race being wiped out. Im sorry if ive touched a nerve somewhere with you but a good dose of the truth is sometimes hard to swallow.

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The mixing of races is inevitable in the modern globalised world. I think that George Alagiah is great. Its true George's program says non ethnic European men are smart, generous, kind etc, etc. 鈥淧eople with dark skin look so handsome and healthy鈥� they are鈥渄ashing鈥� and that 鈥淎n Arab is worth 20 white men鈥�. Anyone who contradicts these facts is clearly mad.
The non European sailors mentioned in the program came from countries where women had much greater rights than those in Britain. That is what the women in the program were celebrating. It is right that a true liberal would aim to spread the kind s of rights that women and gays have in the Sudan or Iran to poor old Britain. Only a racist would suggest that campaigning to change the culture in the Sudan and Iraq would be a better idea.
I am sure that George's female Sri Lankan relatives have fantastic ranges of freedoms. They can wear what they like, or date anyone they please. Unlike Britain George's homeland of Sri Lanka welcome millions of immigrants of other racial groups who were mainly men coming into their country. This would cause no issues what so ever.
Thank you 主播大秀 for showing me all these things.

So we've had the facts about the increase of mixed race britains,what about the decline of white race britains.Come on bbc your always banging on about the extinction of tigers,pandas,red squirrels...these are variants of a species,theres plenty of other types of cat,bear and squirrel,so why do we want to protect them,i assume its because of their unique characteristics,so should'nt this be the same for human races,not so,apparently its racist to think this,baffling...So come on bbc,your always telling us how unbiased you are,give the nation the facts,or does go against your anti white agenda?

Please 主播大秀, consider making this series available on DVD. These are my experiences and I thought it was an excellent series - so little has been explored about our lives. This record of the mixed-race experience in a younger Britian must be remembered and I would like to show it to my children, and one day my grandchildren.