Queens Of Chapeltown

50 years on from the first Leeds West Indian Carnival in 1967, Colin Grant goes behind-the-scenes to explore its roots, and its aim to wash away the anti immigrant sentiment of the 1960s.

After the violence directed at black people in Nottingham and London's Notting Hill in the 1950s, and the naked racism expressed in Smethwick, Birmingham during the 1964 general election, a group of pioneering West Indians came up with a simple and defiant riposte: Carnival.

Colin visits the carnival's HQ in Chapeltown - amidst the glue guns, sequins and feathers - to capture that moment of extraordinary transformation, 50 years on.

It was the birth of a tradition which, for one weekend in August, would wash away the bad taste of anti-immigrant sentiment with a burst of colour and flash of exuberance that would forever change Britain.

Colin is in Leeds to talk with the pioneers and celebrate the endurance and growth of Carnival

Presenter/Producer: Colin Grant

Colin Grant reports on the 50th anniversary of the Leeds West Indian Carnival.

Colin Grant explores the Leeds West Indian Carnival, born in the 1960s in the wake of anti-immigrant sentiment. From 2017.

After the violence directed at black people in Nottingham and Notting Hill in the 1950s, and the naked racism expressed in Smethwick during the 1964 general election, a group of pioneering West Indians came up with a simple and defiant riposte: Carnival.

Colin Grant goes behind the scenes of Carnival to its Leeds West Indian HQ in Chapeltown - amidst the glue guns, sequins and feathers - to capture that moment of extraordinary transformation, 50 years on.

Grant travels to Leeds to talk with the pioneers and celebrate the endurance and growth of Carnival

Colin Grant reports on the 50th anniversary of the Leeds West Indian Carnival. From 2017.

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Colin Grant reports on the 50th anniversary of the Leeds West Indian Carnival.