The mid-1920s saw the rise of the eugenics movement where supposedly scientific justifications were given to validate racist attitudes. A central tenet for eugenicists was that racial mixing would lead to bad breeding and contribute to the degeneracy of the country: morally, physically and intellectually. Simply put, mixed race people were considered as inferior in every sense and science would prove why this was so.We hear from the children of mixed marriages who recall being prodded and poked, having their heads measured and the colour of their skin, eyes and hair recorded in an attempt to find a correlation between race and intelligence. Such work, it was hoped, would give the UK a reason to follow the lead of many other countries and implement anti-miscegenation laws to rule mixed marriages as illegal. Presented by George Alagiah ; series produced and directed by Fatima Salaria.

Olive Salaman was 15 years old when she moved from a small town of Penadrag in the Rhondda Valley to Tiger Bay. The reason she moved? Olive had falling in love with the boy she met, and whom she asked directions back to Cardiff City centre. His name was Ali Salaman, a young Yemeni who was chef in his own Café, the Cairo Café. The Cairo Café as George discovers wasn’t simply a place to eat, but place for it functioned and became established as a social intuition for Tiger Bay’s mixed community. Olive became one of the town’s matriarchs, and café was at the centre of community activities. It brought a Cardiff mixed communities together, and became a place were this community for support and exchanged customs and traditional.Dauod Salamon one of Olive and Ali ten children explains to George how his parents met, and what life was like in area when he was growing up as a boy of mixed Arab parentage. Presented by George Alagiah ; series produced and directed by Fatima Salaria.

George Alagiah tells the story of romance in the First World War between female workers and foreign seamen, the street riots it led to, and how Britain just escaped laws preventing mixed marriage and the excesses of race science. Presented by George Alagiah ; series produced and directed by Fatima Salaria.

During World War II, over 100,000 African-American servicemen were stationed all across Britain and for many Britons it was the first time they had seen a black face. The novelty of these troops was not lost on the local girls. Romance between black GIs and local British women blossomed and many of these relationships resulted in “brown babies”, as they came to be known.These relationships were largely condemned by the US military, which operated a strict segregation policy and conformed to laws back home banning inter-racial marriages. And, as George explains, although Britain had no official colour bar, the authorities also tried to discourage these types of liaisons. But many plucky British women were not to be deterred.About a 1000 mixed race babies were born in Britain during and just after the war. They placed a great strain on our special relationship with our American allies. In Britain, they were referred to as “war casualties”. In America, as ‘the offspring of the scum of the British Isles’. The US government considered that this was a ‘problem’ that the British government should deal with, and balked at any suggestion that these children should be reunited with their black GI fathers – or paid for by the American state.As over half the mothers were married, most brown babies ended up in care. Tony Martin, who was abandoned at birth in a Barnardo’s home but found happiness in a loving adoptive family from Cambridgeshire. Presented by George Alagiah ; series produced and directed by Fatima Salaria.

In the 1960’s, many people but mostly single men, migrated to the UK from former British colonies to find work or further their education. Some managed to find work in the North of England whilst others settled in London. By the 1970’s there were about half a million people of South Asian background in the UK. At the same time, the country, in particular London, saw the rise in popularity of far-right and anti- immigration parties such as the National Front. Racial tensions exploded with demonstrations, marches and subsequently violent clashes between white National Front supporters, Bengalis and other South Asians who had settled in London’s East End. George meets Pamela, born and bred in the East End of London and Shafique, who came from Bangladesh to England at the age of 18. They started their courtship amidst a context of racial prejudice and received hurtful and racist remarks that were directed at them by people Pamela had previously considered friends. Pamela’s father was angry about her decision to marry an Asian man and refused to attend their wedding. Shafique explains to George that he didn’t feel he did anything wrong by marrying Pamela, despite not having her father’s blessing. Despite the struggles they were faced with Pamela and Shafique became one of the first mixed couples to get married at Brick Lane Mosque. George explores the field of mixed race adoption as one of the areas in which identity has been heavily discussed as a key concern. Rosie’s story illustrates the types of social attitudes which contributed to the over-representation of mixed race children in the care system. Rosie’s mother Gladys was married to a white man, but had a secret black lover with whom she had a child. Keeping her pregnancy a secret, she felt she had to leave the marital home. Rosie explains how her mother Gladys was unable to cope with the difficulties of single parenting due to ill health and depression. Gladys sought help from family but her sister wouldn’t take them in for fear of the social stigma attached to having a mixed race baby in their family - they were worried what the neighbors might think. Gladys would now have to make a decision which would mark Rosie’s life forever: she contacted the National Children’s Home. Rosie would spend the next 16 years of her life in the care system and as with many other mixed race individuals, questions of identity and ‘fitting in’ would be raised throughout Rosie’s life. Presented by George Alagiah ; series produced and directed by Fatima Salaria.

In 1948 the British Nationality Act was passed, offering British citizenship to anyone from the Commonwealth and the right to settle here. Thousands of single men from the Caribbean arrived looking for work – the first 400 sailing into Britain on the now famous Windrush boat. With families and sweethearts left behind, romance with local white girls flourished, altering the racial landscape of post-war Britain forever. George reveals how, in the summer of 1946, Liverpool witnessed a series of dramatic events that would alter the lives of many mixed race families and prove to be one of the most shameful episodes in Britain’s post war history.As a port city, Liverpool had long been a magnet for seamen from all over the world. During WWII, around 2,000 Chinese sailors settled there after serving in the merchant navy. Many had married local women and had started families. They thought they were here to stay.But, as George reveals, the British government had other ideas. Despite their undoubted contribution to Britain’s war effort, Home Office ministers decided it was time for them to go. It made no difference whether that broke up families or not.Some where between 500 and 1,000 children were left fatherless. One of these was Yvonne Foley, who gives George a moving account of her life as one of these Eurasian children, who grew up thinking they had been abandoned by their fathers because they did not know this dramatic and hitherto little known story. Presented by George Alagiah ; series produced and directed by Fatima Salaria.

By the 1990s many elements of British Society had completely relaxed their views on mixed race relationships. However, objections were still common. Studies showed that the South Asian populations in the UK had the lowest rates of marrying outside their cultural, religious and ethnic groups. We meet Jaspreet Panglea (Jaz), of Indian Sikh background, and Primrose Jackson, from Zimbabwe, who fell in love despite the expectations of Jaz’s family and community. We see Jaz and Primrose’s wedding celebrations in Hounslow, London, one a Civil Ceremony where Primrose wore a white wedding dress, and the other at a Sikh temple during which she wore an Indian dress. Their wedding was a true fusion of cultures. [Final episode] Presented by George Alagiah ; series produced and directed by Fatima Salaria.