Tariq Ali: BFI ‘Frozen Out’ Over Multicultural TV Row

The BFI’s upcoming season celebrating multicultural television is already facing accusations of… well, a rather glaring lack of multicultural perspective. Tariq Ali, a key figure behind the groundbreaking 1980s current affairs show Bandung File, claims he’s been completely sidelined from the retrospective, despite the season including screenings of his work. This isn’t just a snub; it’s a symptom of a larger issue – the selective memory often applied to television history, and who gets to control the narrative.

Bandung File, named after the 1955 Indonesian conference of newly independent Asian and African states, wasn’t simply a program *about* multiculturalism; it *was* multiculturalism in action. Ali, alongside Darcus Howe and Farrukh Dhondy, built a show that tackled issues like apartheid and the Rushdie affair with a directness that was rare for the time. It wasn’t a polite, observational program; it was investigative, internationalist, and, crucially, it drew a broad audience. As Samir Shah, the current chair of the BBC, noted, the show’s coverage of the BCCI scandal demonstrated the power of that kind of journalism.

The BFI’s response – a somewhat belated claim of difficulty sourcing Ali’s contact details – feels… insufficient. It smacks of a PR scramble to mitigate the damage. The initial program listing, showcasing Bandung File without acknowledging its creators, was a misstep. Now, the attempt to frame the omission as a logistical oversight feels disingenuous. The BFI is walking a tightrope: they want to celebrate a pivotal moment in British television history, but seemingly on their own terms, and without potentially uncomfortable questions from those who actually *made* that history.

Ali’s pointed question – “Was this actually on British television?” – is the real sting here. He’s highlighting a worrying trend: the erasure of genuinely groundbreaking, challenging programming from the collective memory. And his concern that a show like Bandung File couldn’t exist today isn’t just pessimism; it’s a stark warning about the narrowing of perspectives in contemporary television. The “funeral” the team held after the show’s cancellation – “cause of death – execution” – feels tragically prescient. The question now is whether the BFI will genuinely engage with Ali and the legacy of Bandung File, or simply offer a carefully curated, and ultimately incomplete, version of its story.