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7 - ‘Black Magic’

Racially Comfortable Viewing on British Television in the 1980s and 1990s

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 March 2026

Christine Grandy
Affiliation:
University of Lincoln
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Summary

The final chapter examines the relative success of three Black sitcoms; The Cosby Show, Desmond’s and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, with both white and Black audiences in 1980s and 1990s Britain. The success of these programmes pointed to a potential site of racial consensus among white and Black British audiences; yet the chapter notes that the programmes worked within the parameters of white British colour-blindness by providing what was repeatedly identified by television critics in the press as ‘comfortable’ viewing for white audiences. These shows were praised repeatedly as not being about race, in a period when the Conservative Party was mounting its own claims to colour-blindness. As such, the racial progress that the popularity of these shows seemed to signal was instead tied again to the potential discomforts of colour-blind white audiences.

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  • ‘Black Magic’
  • Christine Grandy, University of Lincoln
  • Book: Race on Screen
  • Online publication: 10 March 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009650953.008
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  • ‘Black Magic’
  • Christine Grandy, University of Lincoln
  • Book: Race on Screen
  • Online publication: 10 March 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009650953.008
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • ‘Black Magic’
  • Christine Grandy, University of Lincoln
  • Book: Race on Screen
  • Online publication: 10 March 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009650953.008
Available formats
×