Poles apart | 18 July 2019

Have you ever seen a Pole on British television? Poles are the biggest immigrant group in Britain, numbering between 900,000 and one million, so you might think they would be all over the TV. But no, there are hardly any. There is a Polish character on Coronation Street, who might turn out to be a sex-trafficker. There was also a Polish character on EastEnders, although the actor who played him left the show to become the Pole on Coronation Street.

As a British person living in Poland, I have spoken to many Poles who have lived in the UK. They have told me eye-widening stories about exploitation, crime, poverty and xenophobia, but also about dedication, luck, success and self-discovery. One friend worked as a private barman for a gangster; another went from being homeless to serving celebrities in one of London’s trendiest restaurants. Their stories, like many others, could be the subject of excellent dramas. It is a shame that none exists.

There are plenty of programmes that focus on British Asians: Informer, Muslims Like Us, Citizen Khan, Man Like Mobeen, My Asian Alter Ego, The Big Asian Stand-Up, Goodness Gracious Me and more. Meanwhile there are almost no documentaries, dramas or sitcoms about Poles in the UK. I can only think of The Poles are Coming, a brief but well-made documentary on Polish immigrants and Londoners, which featured Poles living and working in the UK, but was only broadcast on TVP, a Polish television channel.

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It is not as if there is a shortage of Polish actors who could perform. Take Marcin Dorocinski, who starred in Polish films such as Pitbull and You are God. He appeared in the BBC’s Poland-based historical drama Spies of Warsaw. Perhaps this series should count, although it was not about Polish migrants, or even living Poles, or even Poles per se but British diplomats in Poland during the second world war.