TV dramas on refugee life could counter hate, argues Pryce

A compelling drama about refugees living in Britain could be one way to defuse the rising anger and anti-migrant sentiment in the UK, according to the award-winning actor Jonathan Pryce, who said great TV or film could “open up” the issue.

- Lanre Bakare

Jonathan Pryce is in a 1987 drama showing at the London film festival

Pryce said that at present the British public has no idea about the day-to-day reality for people living in migrant hotels.

“People aren’t aware of the facts concerning the homeless, concerning immigrants, legal or otherwise,” he said. “And so this sort of fear and anger builds up about something they don’t really know anything about.

“It’s an issue that does need to be opened up and explored to a greater extent, and it has to be through drama, which is often the best way to tell somebody’s emotional story.”

Pryce, who was nominated for an Oscar for playing Pope Francis in the movie The Two Popes, was talking before the London film festival screening of Hotel London, a 1987 drama he starred in that highlighted homelessness, immigration and bigotry in the capital at the height of Thatcherism.