Descendants: Episode One
Seriously...
BBC
4.1 • 885 Ratings
🗓️ 1 June 2021
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
One year on from the toppling of the Colston Statue in Bristol, Descendants asks... how close is each of us to the legacy of Britain's role in slavery? And who does that mean our lives are connected to?
Yrsa Daley-Ward narrates seven episodes telling the stories of people whose lives today are all connected through this history.
The story begins with Jen Reid – whose image first captured attention of the national and international press after a replacement statue of her appeared on the plinth where Colston once stood. In the first episode, we discover the connection between Jen's ancestors in Jamaica and another family 3000 miles away in Detroit. Scrolling backwards and forwards in time, their stories span 200 years and take us on a journey from a plantation field in Jamaica to a football pitch in Scotland and a connection to a legendary figure of the 20th century.
Producers: Polly Weston, Candace Wilson, Rema Mukena Editor: Kirsten Lass Academic consultants: Matthew Smith and Rachel Lang of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at UCL Additional genealogical research is by Laura Berry
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | This was an impregnable fortress. The only way you get out was in a wooden box. |
| 0:05.0 | The controversial maximum security prison impossible to escape from. |
| 0:09.0 | And one of the duties of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.0 | The IRA inmates who found a way. of a political prisoner is the escape. |
| 0:12.5 | The IRA inmates who found a way. |
| 0:14.5 | I'm Carlo Gableer and I'll be navigating a path |
| 0:19.5 | through the disturbing inside story of the biggest jailbreak in British and Irish history. |
| 0:25.0 | The narrative that they want is that this is a big achievement by them. |
| 0:28.5 | Escape from the maze, listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:39.0 | Hello and welcome to Seriously from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:43.0 | I'm Rama McKenna, one of the producers of descendants. |
| 0:47.0 | This podcast series asks two important questions. |
| 0:51.0 | How close is each of us to the legacy of Britain's role in slavery? |
| 0:54.0 | And who does that mean our lives are connected to? |
| 0:57.0 | Yes, a Daily Ward narrates seven episodes telling the stories of people |
| 1:02.0 | whose lives today are all connected |
| 1:04.8 | through this history. You're about to hear the first episode. |
| 1:08.8 | To listen to the rest of the series, search for descendants on BBC Sounds. A year ago something |
| 1:16.7 | seismic happened in Bristol. 10,000 people congregated in the city. And some of them pulled down a statue of a man called |
| 1:28.0 | Edward Colston. They dragged it down the street and they dumped it in the harbour. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.