Reggae Britannia

It finally aired, iv'e been looking forward to see this ever since it was announced that my favorite station where to air this newly produced documentary on Reggae in the UK. Rarely have my expectations been so high, would this beat outstanding documentaries like "Reggae in Babylon" and "Aquarious" ? It's good enough but im afraid i got a bit disappointing. This was not made for "reggae-nerds" like me and deals with how Reggae affected British society at large rather than feature as many anecdotes from as many artists as possible.

It has Dennis Bovel, folks from "Aswad" and "Steel Pulse" along with brief segments from Tippa Irie and Asher Senator but totally leaves out much of the current artists and super important folks like Jah Shaka or Mad Professor. The parts on "lovers rock" are bigtime disappointments as it does not feature any of the big names like "Peter Hunningale" or "Bitty McLean" but just a few female acts from the 70ies and 80ies.
It also features Chris Blackwell who started Island records but as there was a show strictly about him not too long ago it feels like repetition.

The same goes for the part about the UK ska revival, it's interesting and i do like some of the songs/groups but they got their own show as well. I think UB40 sucks but knowing how big they got i guess they had to feature them on here, too bad they skipped out on all good white reggae/dancehall acts that's from the UK. And talking about UK dub and leaving out "Alpha & Omega" and the whole steppers scene, that should border on criminal negligence (lol).

I guess this would appeal more to someone with a big interest in music in general who would like to get a overview of British reggae and what the genre has meant to the UK rather than someone who lives and breathes Reggae on a daily basis. Still, i rather have this flawed documentary than none at all and there are interesting parts in it. Worth watching but not as impressive and "all inclusive" as i had hoped. Now im awaiting the "Toots & The Maytals" documentary that is to come, let's hope tha one will be better. Can be downloaded from torrent sites like "UK nova", im not going to upload it here this time.