Jason Okundaye’s article (My hunt for a missing TV episode – and what it shows about being Black in Britain, 13 May) reflects the concern of many of us who were involved in radical programme-making on UK television in the 1980s and 90s. This is particularly true of programmes on Channel 4, which brought to our screens previously unheard voices from a wide range of perspectives – Black and Asian, lesbian and gay, women and working-class communities. The rich history of the period contained in these programmes is largely invisible precisely for the reasons that Okundaye has identified.
I worked at Channel 4 from 1985 to 1995 in the independent film and video department, commissioning series such as Out on Tuesday (later Out), the first networked series in the UK for and by lesbians and gay men. Programmes like these provide unique cultural and political records, but are often absent from TV histories of the time.
