Can you see me in here . Yeah. Oh, yeah. Laughter. Ruining anothercamera. My name is Godfrey Henry oliver palmer, and i was Born Injamaica in1940. Big set. Carmen esmee e s m e steele. I am mrs munroe. Lacita alexander reid. 20th may 1931, in manchester, jamaica. Yeah. Piano refrain plays. Emotive strings play. Plaintive woodwind plays. Chirpy piano tune plays. History is thankfully and finally beginning to accord a rightful place to those men and women of the windrush generation. You look beautiful. How are you . It is, i believe, crucially important that we should truly see and hear these pioneers who stepped off the Empire Windrush at tilbury injune i9li8, only a few months before i was born. And those who followed over the decades to recognise and celebrate the immeasurable difference that they, their children and their grandchildren have made to this country. Many served with distinction in the British Armed forces during the second world war, just as their fathers and grandfathers had in the first world war. Once in britain, they worked hard, offering their skills to rebuild a country during peacetime and seeking opportunities to forge a Better Future for themselves and their families. When they arrived on our shores with little more than what they were able to carry with them, few could hardly have imagined then how they and those that followed them would make such a profound and permanent contribution to british life. We were often ex servicemen, to come back to britain. To build the country back. During the war, a lot of things that shouldnt be done wasnt done. Britain was flattened by the germans. And a lot of west indian come. There was a shortage of workers here. England have the money, but jamaica have the men. I heard about it three months before i bought my ticket. £28 something. And i remember something pence. And i was looking forward to it. This year as we honour the legacy and achievements of the windrush generation, i dearly hope that we can continue to embrace differences, listen to each other� s stories, and learn from one another� s experiences. It is these stories that help light the path of progress and remind us of a fundamental truth that though we might all be different, every individual, no matter their background, has Something Special to contribute to our society in a way that strengthens us all. Well, its not every day that youre approached by the king. Honestly, when they first emailed me, i thought it was a scam. I was like, ok. So the king selected me . Yeah, right. And your sister and daughter, your daughter, your sister is an olympian . Three times. Yes. Well, i dont know. 400 meters. Oh, amazing. A lot of my work is about escapism. Im going to get right in here. Dont mind me. And in this sense, im engaging with a man and his family and his story in a very real way. That would be perfect. Jesses a remarkable woman. Shes from an incredible generation and shes seen so much history. And its nice to be able to document just a tiny bit of that history. Im here to take a few photos of her and do a few sketches and try and take Something Back to my studio that i can use. In her portrait. What do you think . Leave it. I thought you wouldnt fit. As an artist, i its opportunities like this thatl offer me a chance to tell people stories that im sure consider themselves unseen. Its nice. Its important to understand history. A project like this where i guess were dealing with a lot of histories that oftentimes feel swept under the rug, its good to get, you know, from the source, and then maybe it can make a start in a direction of rectifying some of those gaps in some of those stories, some of those bits that are missing. Well, this is clifton powell. Hes going to be i doing your portrait. Its a pleasure to meet you. Pleasure meeting you. This is new to me as well. You know that. I have to call my niece on my landline to ask her whats going on on here. I was so nervous when i first met carmen because ive literally grown up seeing her on television. What does it mean . The question of the windrush generation, which is my parents generation, that question of migrating from one place and all the kinds of expectations and then the actual of what happens once that move has taken place and that persons perspective on the life theyve lived here. So, those things were immediately fascinating and interesting. Have you had your portraits painted before . No, no. Its going to be your first time . The photos on the wall has inspired me. What family means to you. Yes. You know, and its a beautiful thing ithat i will try as much as possiblel to touch base on the process of making the portrait. Im actually Working On My Uk visa documents. Im going on them and i feel| like its very symbolic for us. When i go back to ghana, im going to, like, put all the images together. Im looking forward to bringing your portrait to life. My name isjohn mitchell richard. I was Born Injamaica, the parish of portland, the district of prospect. Alfred gardner, born in kingston, jamaica, 27thjanuary 1926. Delisa augustus bernard. I was born 1928. I was born in at the time, british guyana. Alford gardner, born in kingston, jamaica, 27thjanuary 1926. Delisser augustus bernard. I was born 1928. I was born in at the time, british guyana. Oh, gosh, its very difficult. I have to sort of come away again in order to tell you what it was like, because it wasjust like home. How do you describe home . You know . My family was very orthodox methodist, and so i inherited that christian background with discipline and hard work. It was a big family. My siblings, of course, and the parents. My father died early, in the early 50s, so i stay home with my mother to lookj after the younger ones. I dont like to remember some of it. But one thing i decided, i wasnt going to steal to help the younger ones. I work and i work. My father sent me to learn. My father sent me to learn dress making. When i small, i used to do, make my own clothes for myself. I did everything i was, everything a wife should do, everything. I did Everything A Boy, Everything A Boy should do, everything. At one time, i thought i could do anything a boy could do. Idid. I didnt know that there was a life to come. Edna may henry. Born in jamaica. When i had the phone call about they wanted to do a portrait for my mum, i was over the moon. I kept it quiet for a while before id even told my mother. I think its fantastic. She deserves this because of what she contributed for wales. I have not been to wales before. Its part of my process to dress my models and i decided that it might be fun just to spend some time with her, to get to know her and to warm up together over shopping. Because who doesnt like to shop . Well, thats fantastic. To know that, you know, im painting somebody. From jamaica the same place that im from. I. Its an experience. Its a new experience for me. You know, it shouldnt be, but it is, you know . Oh, thats lovely. My name is gilda eunice oliver, and i was born in and bear road district. So i was wondering if. If you like this with like a blouse underneath. Yeah. Or a scarf. Like a silk scarf or Something Like that. I dont know much right now. Im looking forward to speaking to her. I do know that she worked as a Health Care Professional and that shes a very proud woman and raised a family here and has, i think, probably as deep connection to herjamaican roots as she does to her british roots. I spent 23 years in the hospital. Nursing assistant. I was a nurse auxiliary. I washed the patients, i feed them, comfort them, let them feel good. Yeah, we have a laugh sometimes. Theres some that cant feed themselves and we have to feed them. We have to bathe them and have to dress them and sometimes some of them dirty themselves. And we have to take them to the bathroom. And we have to bathe them. I didnt likejust. I used, i like to put them in the bath and give them a good bath. I know that theyre clean. Dress them and put them in the chair to sit. Sometimes they try to be rough to me, but i dont, i didnt take no mind. You dont pay no mind. Some of the residents as soon as they get that, they stick to you. Because we were so kind to them. Because we were so kind to them, they stick to you. It was a hard job. It was hard. To be truthful, i didnt know i would spend 23 years in the hospital. I want it to look exactly like her. Everything here is about mrs oliver. At the end of the day, everything connects. And it comes down to a point. Mrs oliver is the point. Because this is going to touch her soul, to see herself in a painting. I really just want to try to pull her story out of this. Hello. Hi. How are you . Thats important for me in the making of the portrait, is to just know how she feels about this, know how she feels about the life that she lived here. I just want you to try on tonight. Yes. Is this one . I used to do long hours. I used to work 7 00 in the morning till 8 00 in the evening. Ive got five girls and three boys. Yeah. In the night when i go in to work, i kiss them and say good night. L and in the morning, sometimes if theyre on holiday, they dont wake up so early. So before they wake up, like i started sometime, they dont realize that i go to work. Theyve always been very good to me and the country has been good to me as well because i love me to have a job that i can get and look after the children. Because its not everywhere you work, you can get a job to fit in with the family, like the children. I but some of the patients then was, you know, prejudice. This girl came up and she said, oh, i dont want your tea. And i always say, all right, then. You go. If you dont want it, you go. You lose weight. When im going out, she come back and she said, are you here tomorrow morning . And i said, yes, im here tomorrow morning. 0k. You know, but ijust laugh it off and walk away from, you know, it didnt. I didnt think nothing about them, you know, because, you know, theyre not as sensible as me. So, therefore, ijust leave them alone. How does she feel about this commission . About her relationship to her own identity and to bring a deeper meaning into this . For me, just through her words and not my own im proud of myself to, you know, to be so faithful to the nhs and the ward that i work because i work hard on that ward. All right. I think were good. My father left us in 1947, probably. He went to america. I hisjob that he was doing probably. Wasnt making enough money to look after the family. You leave jamaica for there was no work and a crowded house. Yeah. Jamaica was a crowded house. When you leaving your own country, you always feel not too great to leave it because you are leaving your family and all your friends. And thats how things goes. Part of life. It was quite normal. It wasnt unusual. You know, this is a i result of our history. Historically, slavery provided work, in a sense that you were working. I however, when slavery ended, i then the, you know, the colonial period was one where men walked about looking for work. You dont know what youre going to make until you make it. I guess itsjust, between now and the finish line, itsjust attempts, you know, knowing that theres going to be a struggle. Glasses off. Knowing its a process of not giving up. And thats what would take me there. Same as last time, i guess, ill do five minute sketches. My challenge is to make something that big john feels is familiar, resembles him. Appreciated by himself and whoever he deems important to see it as well. Hes a role model, so, you know, lets try and put him in a position of being that role model. I noticed that hes in a lot of, like, photographs from back in the day. So he was, i dont know, to me, hes almost like this, like handsome pin up kind of character. Theres a certain generation who, if it wasnt for the way they carried themselves, the way they survived, then, you know, we might not be here with such strength. There was a pride, able to stand our ground. So, yeah, thats what someone ofjohns age and energy represents to me. My work is about investigation and rediscovery. For a kid who i was at school, who loved reading stories, but never felt reflected by them, any opportunity to build on that, to share that, grow that. Thats my take. Im here to go to alfords house and meet him for the first time, introduce myself and get to know him a little bit so that it can inform what sort of painting i produce for him. And get photos. Because i am a Realist Painter and i work from photos, predominantly, so its all about the photo. The better the photo, the better the painting will be. Hello. Nice to meet you. Ive got really cold hands. Just so you know. I want to capture the true essence of alford. Just like the kind of normal man that he is. I think a lot of paintings can add a level of sort of pomp, which im not about. Ijust want to capture something realistic and raw and honest. Im going to do a hyper detailed portrait for you. So the more the camera captures, the better. I do know a little bit about alford already because i did some research and it looks like he came from jamaica to england on the windrush and he joined the raf. My granddad was recruited for the raf in 1958 and i said, like, did you enjoy it . He was like, not really. What about you . He came at the wrong time. When i came here, i mean, the war was still on. The best thing was get to know where you were, get to know the people and. Keep your nose clean. Keep your nose clean . Dont get involved with anything. What do you feel is the key aspect of who you are and what you want represented in the painting . Hmm. Really, its up to you. Sometimes you can have really serious portraits, but youve got such a great laugh, i feel like i want to capture some of the, some of the candid nature of your personality. Really. A lot of memories go back into good reggae music. A lot of good memories, yep. All the teaching of english, everything you did in jamaica was english. How else do you teach anybody . It has to be like that, i you know what i mean . British guyana. One of my First Experience says about britain was when, injamaica, youre taught many, many songs. Thats part of education. You sang a lot in schools. One day i went home and my aunts said, you know, what did you do at school today, boy . And i said, we sang songs. And she said, which one . Could you sing us one . And i said, yeah. And i sang my love is like a red, red rose. And my aunts went silent. And then they said, why are they teaching you to sing these dirty songs for when youre just a boy . The english history book was about two and a half inches thick. The jamaican one was about a quarter inch, so ijust didnt like it. It was a big taboo to me, english history. I would not learn it. After high school, youll be working for the government. Or as time went by and it became obvious that another thing you could do was to leave guyana and come to the mother country. The mother country. The term was used often, you know, during your education. 50, most people of the windrush generation, like myself, were not formally educated to, you know, because they didnt go to private schools or posh schools. But we knew or we were told a lot about britain. Why is this photograph so important to you . I because. Its in a. Perhaps a small way, help to break down the barriers. Hm. With figures like him, we see their accomplishments and they hide a lot of the scars. And i think for me, im interested in where the discomfort lies and what he might might be keeping beneath the surface and how we can bring that into a richer understanding of who he is. Hello there, good evening. With low pressure close by for yet another weekend, its looking rather unsettled again. Blustery for the time of year, with blue sky and sunshine, as captured in perth and kinross, and a good scattering of showers. Another good scattering of showers, some heavy and thundery. Similar tomorrow weather wise. The showers will be fewer and further between. Less sharp in nature, windy, but not as blustery as today. This is the satellite picture, showing us the area of cloud. Low pressure very much dominant, gradually pushing further eastwards through the rest of the weekend. And we look out towards the South West On sunday night, where theres some more rain approaching. But tonight, a lot of the showers fade away and there will be clear spells around. Still some showery outbreaks of rain, cloud across Northern Ireland and approaching Western Scotland by the end of the night. A mild start to sunday morning, temperatures down to between 1a and 16 celsius. Plenty of cloud around for many areas on sunday morning, but it should break up and well see brightness and spells of sunshine develop. But still watch out for showers possibly thundery across the moray firth, but elsewhere, they should fall lighter. And largely dry across parts of east anglia, where it will tend to be brightest. Highs here of 23 degrees. More cloud and Rain Approaching Cornwall and the south of wales by the end of the day. And that rain will move further northwards and eastwards through the day on monday, into central and southern england, as far north as northern england. Some showers breaking out across northern scotland, but largely dry across scotland perhaps and across Northern Ireland, too. Bright spells, but watch out for showers across parts of east anglia. Temperatures here still 22 celsius, in the best of that brightness. On tuesday, that area of low pressure is moving into scandinavia. Tuesday looking largely dry, maybe a few showers across central and Western Areas of scotland, and a murky start to the day. But pressure builds towards the south of england. This is the position of the jet stream through next week. Still a lot of debate about how far north it will be. But we expect that warm air from Southern Europe to move further northwards, on more of a south easterly wind, so temperatures across south wales, likely to rise into the mid 20s, possibly across london and the south of england, as highs reach the high 20s. But further north, cooler and more unsettled. Live from london, this is bbc news. The french coastguard calls off its search for the night after six people drown when a Boat Carrying Migrants Sinks in the English Channel. Hawaiis Attorney General Orders an investigation into the handling of wildfires on maui after 80 are killed. And two games away from glory the lionesses Reach The World Cup semifinal where they will play Hosts Australia in an eagerly anticipated fixture. Hello, im lucy gray. The six migrants who drowned in the English Channel on saturday have been identified as afghans. A french official said more than 60 people were on board the boat which capsized most of them were from afghanistan and some were sudanese. They were all trying to reach the uk. The search for two people who may still be missing has been called off. Simonjones reports from dover. The sea has claimed several more lives. The french lifeboat had the grim task of bringing five bodies back to shore, a sixth person airlifted to hospital didnt survive. Some of those rescued were taken to dover after lifeboats from the uk joined the search operation. Many of the survivors had been in the sea, screaming for help
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