BBC Four Greenlights Skinhead Special from 7 Wonder

LONDON: 7 Wonder has been commissioned by BBC Four to produce the hour-long special Skinhead, led by the U.K.’s Don Letts.

Skinhead will look on as Letts explores the social impact the Skinhead movement has had across music, style and culture, and how it has changed through the decades. The film was commissioned by Cassian Harrison and Jan Younghusband for BBC Four. Steve Condie is serving as executive producer for 7 Wonder.

Letts commented: “As a teenager I spent a part of my youth as a skinhead—we’re talking about the fashion version and not the fascist version that would appear much later. We were part of the U.K.’s first real multicultural movement united by a love of music and style—well that’s how it started anyway. Over the years the original idea of what skinhead is about has been lost and without shying away from the mess it became, I look forward to telling the story of what skinhead meant to me and many of my mates. It’s a story that says much about British life—about our music, our fashion, our multicultural society and our politics. I want to get under the skin of skinhead and try to understand a movement that was essentially born of white working class disillusionment.”

Condie added: “This film is a chance to have one of the country’s most original cultural voices, Don Letts, take on a remarkable British cultural phenomenon—Skinhead. We will look at the surprising story of how a movement born in multicultural harmony became a symbol of intolerance and the street brawling muscle of fascist and racist political groups. Despite the fact that he has spent much of life at the opposite end of the cultural spectrum to Skinhead we believe Don will bring a fresh and frank voice to a rich and controversial story.”