In the musty, ever-expanding wardrobe department that is British period drama, Lady Macbeth stands out like a PVC minidress. Adapted from a 19th‑century Russian novel (and nothing to do with Shakespeare), the film is stripped-back costume drama, with minimal dialogue, music and furniture, and none of the pomp and politeness the genre usually entails. Its heroine, Katherine, wears fetching frocks, admittedly, but having been sold to a Northumberland bachelor along with a piece of land, she refuses to accept her plight. Instead this spirited ingenue (memorably played by Florence Pugh) schemes, sleeps and ultimately murders her way out of the patriarchal bodice. It is more Coen brothers thriller than Jane Austen romance.
But there is something else striking about Lady Macbeth: Katherine’s maid, Anna, is black. The cocksure groom Katherine takes as her lover is also dark-skinned. Two more major characters who appear late in the story are black. In fact, there are practically more characters of colour in Lady Macbeth than there are in all the Austens, Dickenses and Downtons put together. British period drama as a cordoned-off zone of whiteness may chime with current fantasies of a country unpopulated by immigrants or foreigners, but given that period drama accounts for such an overwhelming proportion of our entertainment industry, isn’t it a bit … old-fashioned?
There are two sides to this problem. First, the repercussions are being felt on Britain’s screens and stages as actors of colour are excluded. As Thandie Newton has said about being based in Britain: “I love being here, but I can’t work, because I can’t do Downton Abbey, can’t be in Victoria, can’t be in Call the Midwife … there just seems to be a desire for stuff about the royal family, stuff from the past, which is understandable, but it just makes it slim pickings for people of colour.”
As a result, many British actors – from Idris Elba to David Oyelowo to Chiwetel Ejiofor – go to the US to find work as well. Sophie Okonedo went to act with Denzel Washington on Broadway, Newton is currently in Westworld, Daniel Kaluuya jumped ship with American horror Get Out – and the list goes on. Samuel L Jackson recently questioned why all the plum Hollywood roles were going to Brits; if he channel-surfed on British TV, he would have seen why.
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