'This show is just the start': inside the BBC's all-person-of-colour A Suitable Boy

It has 110 actors, is based on one of the longest books in English - and it’s the BBC’s first historical drama with no white characters. But some think the series doesn’t go far enough. We take a look behind the scenes‘This is an Indian story,” says Tanya Maniktala, “so it’s about time it was told by us.” The 22-year-old actor is speaking by video call from Delhi about playing the lead in a groundbreaking BBC adaptation of Vikram Seth’s novel A Suitable Boy.The six-part series is the first time the BBC has had a historical drama cast entirely with people of colour, and the first time that Seth’s 1993 novel – one of the longest in the English language – has been adapted for the screen. “It’s a landmark,” says BBC commissioning editor Mona Qureshi. “With a novel like this, where there aren’t characters who are white, it makes sense to have an all south Asian cast. It has been a long time coming.” Continue reading... https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/jul/20/a-suitable-boy-india-bbc-historical-drama-mira-nair-vikram-seth #drama #television #historical_drama_(tv) #fiction #india #culture #television_&_radio #books #period_drama_(tv) #south_and_central_asia #andrew_davies #mira_nair #vikram_seth #film #television_industry #media #world_news