Roots Revisited

Malachi Kirby plays Kunta Kinte in a haunting new version of the slavery epic

- Caren Clark

It’s 40 years since Roots, the groundbreaking TV adaptation of Alex Haley’s best-selling novel, captivated the world. Now, a new four-part version, airing on BBC4, revisits the powerful story of an African slave’s fight for freedom.

The four-part, Emmy-nominated drama, narrated by Laurence Fishburne, begins in the Gambia during the mid-18th century, where young African warrior, Kunta Kinte (Malachi Kirby), is captured and sold into slavery.

KUNTA KINTE’S JOURNEY 

After he is taken to work on a tobacco plantation in America, the drama follows him and subsequent generations through the revolution to the Civil War and beyond.

London-born Kirby, whose credits include EastEnders, Doctor Who and the latest series of Black