Harriet, BBC 4, BBC iPlayer, Writers Gregory Allen Howard and Kasi Lemmons, Directed by Kasi Lemmons.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001ckxy/harriet

There’s an old trick for a director to add a few lines of text and also claim credit as a writer. Harriet is about slavery. Black people were bought and sold like slaves (and still are). You’ve probably had a mental blip, because it’s clichéd. From Prince claiming he was a slave and changing his name to a squiggle during a contractual dispute with his record company. In contrast, Liz Truss being a slave to the market. Black Lives Matter means the opposite. Abraham Lincoln theoretically freed the slaves (apart from his own), but we’ve had Jim Crow laws, Emmit Till, the Vietnam War and the return of the Republican racist righteous Proud Boys to the Presidency.

Harriet Tubman (Cynthia Erivo) takes us back to her roots. The use of her first name singular suggests we are already familiar with the outline of her story. I wasn’t.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman

She is portrayed as a black Joan of Arc. A God-given strength to her mission. To free herself from slavery. Die or try. For most other blacks it was try and die. She reached freedom. One hundred miles of unforgiving territory stalked by slave catchers and dogs. Even blacks that sold their own kind and sent them back to their white masters. They’d probably vote for the moron’s moron, Trump.  Later it was 400 miles to Canada, even with The Underground Railroad, too far and too few.  But the small still voice in her head tells her where to go and when. She has fits. They are portrayed here as playbacks or play forwards of scenes from her life. These are linked to a blow she took on her head. For those of a scientific mind, the aura before epilepsy. For others, quite simply, miraculous. With God on her side, Harriet showed no fear. Slavery was against God’s law. It was all there in black and white played out in the American Civil War. Harriet, a black woman, who also led black troops into battle. It’s to step out of time. Two steps forward and two step back. Worth a look.