Defiance: Fighting the Far Right

The first episode starts in 1976, as attitudes against immigration across the UK reach boiling point. The National Front threaten to become a political force, while the brutal murder of Altab Ali on election day sends shockwaves through nearby Brick Lane's Bengali community.

Three years after the killing of Gurdip Singh Chaggar, the National Front plan a rally in the centre of Southall: the heartland of Britain's Asian community at the time. When the authorities refuse to move the meeting, thousands of British Asians, including the Southall Youth Movement, gather to demonstrate their anger. Attempts to block the rally are mostly peaceful, but police arrest hundreds of members of the local community and violent clashes escalate. During the ensuing chaos, Clarence Baker, a local community organiser, is attacked by the police and ends up in a coma. Blair Peach, an anti-racist teacher, is fatally injured when he encounters the notorious Special Patrol Group of the Metropolitan Police. Peach's killing goes unprosecuted, while hundreds of young Asians are convicted in a questionable judicial process. As the community mourns Peach's death, questions arise about police brutality and the handling of the case. Asian youth movements around the country realise that they must take matters into their own hands to protect themselves against the rising attacks from the far right.

In July 1981, violence explodes in east London, Bradford and Southall. In Walthamstow, Mrs Parveen Khan and her children are killed in their home in an arson attack. The situation in Southall ignites when hundreds of far-right skinheads descend on the Hambrough Tavern. The Southall Youth Movement clash with the skinheads and burn the pub down. In Bradford, rumours of a National Front attack lead to 12 young people stockpiling petrol bombs. When the police arrest them on conspiracy charges, they face life imprisonment. They must persuade a jury that the petrol bombs are weapons not of aggression but of defence against a concerted far-right assault on their community. The case becomes a rallying call for the Asian communities in the UK with the slogan 'Self defence is no offence', and the outcome of the trial changes the country.