Writing a story of postwar British culture that takes better account of the contributions of West Indian and other New Commonwealth settlers involves throwing light upon people, productions, and communities that have been invisible historically: the theater groups and underground plays, for example, that were independent from the mainstream. Some artists were successful enough to operate to some extent within the mainstream, however, with theaters and producers that targeted a broader audience, especially in the 1950s and early 1960s. The next two chapters, then, are about West Indian writers and actors who constituted the roots of the West Indian artistic community in postwar Britain. But they are also about the British producers they worked with and the productions that they collaborated to create. History has tended to define the British cultural canon in one way, while positioning black British culture as a counterpoint or (at worst) an alien interloper. The stories that follow showcase a more organic meshing of so-called “white” and West Indian cultural priorities in postwar London.

The day after the ITV drama Hot Summer Night first aired on British television, in 1960, Jamaican Lloyd Reckord thought his acting career was made. His name was in the newspapers, all because of one provocative scene in the previous evening's dramatic teleplay—Britain's first onscreen interracial kiss, with actress Andrée Melly:

Upon breaking into the world of mainstream British drama, Reckord discovered the boundaries of that world for West Indian (and other black) actors, not to mention writers and directors.