After half an hour of the first episode I decided to Google reviews of this show and I wasn't completely surprised to find that there were quite a few negative reviews of 'Guerilla' and most of them came from the UK.I'm going to add to them. It's terrible: imagine a Quentin Tarantino directed version of 'Love Thy Neighbour' or 'Till Death Us Do Part' and you aren't far off. Clichés abound, historical accuracy is irrelevant, all of the characters are stereotypes and it was so dire that I think even one star is doing it a favour.Britain in the early 1970s wasn't perfect, but 'Guerilla' is terrible and could only be improved with a laughter track. Utter, utter nonsense. Avoid.

What with all the 1-star-reviews? A lot of haters here. This is not a bad series. Definitely not. And what's with criticizing the casting of an Indian woman? Black or Indian, it doesn't matter if it fits. As a matter of fact, the consultants on this show (who were very much involved in *the cause* back in the day suggest that there used to be an Indian woman (and Indian men too) very much involved in the matter. I like the fact that Ms. Pinto's in this. Criticism about the casting of an Indian woman instead of a black woman could be considered racism or oppression, the very thing the characters in the story were fighting.Blatant racism, inequality (gender, race or nationality) are parts of our everyday lives, anywhere. Sometimes less, sometimes more, depends on where you live. A fact no one can argue. I get that there's a flood of programs, series and reports on the subject right now, which is sometimes very annoying to say the least (mostly low quality stuff and propaganda are annoying of course). I'm not a fan or follower of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Being an immigrant myself, I support basic human decency and equality among all people. Not just one group.And what's with all the 9 and 10-star reviews? There's a whole scale here people. This is not an 8, 9, 10 out of 10. It's an interesting series undoubtedly, but nothing new. Watch the Baader Meinhof Komplex. Also Rory Kinnear is a good actor and a good villain. One of the things I don't like here is that his character is involved with a black woman, who's his informant. A little bit too much and unnecessary. All in all, not too great, but better than most. I'll definitely keep watching since there will only be 6 episodes. I expect the characters to die or go to prison, with maybe one of them leading a life in exile somewhere. 6.5/10

Just to be clear, this is not a fair review of this programme. It is not fair because I found the programme so awful, that I could only manage to get through one episode of six. I started watching the second episode but had to switch off after twenty minutes. So, to be clear, I did not enjoy it.The programme I am speaking of is the much promoted and heralded Sky six- parter, Guerrilla. With the headliners being Idris Elba and Freida Pinto, advertising has, misleadingly, lead with their images. Perhaps Idris comes more to the fore in later episodes, but in the opening episode, it is Frida's character that drives the story. So the story: Guerrilla tells the story of a group of militants who decide to free a political prisoner and wage war on the establishment after one of their friends is murdered by the police during a demonstration. We begin with Jas (Pinto) and her partner, Marcus (Babou Ceesay) visiting their activist friend, Dhari (Nathaniel Martello-White) in prison. Later they meet up with another couple, Julian (Nicholas Pinnock) a peaceable activist, and his Irish girlfriend, Fallon (Denise Gough) and head to the pub. Elsewhere, Pence - played by Rory Kinnear, channelling his best Afrikaans accent for some unknown reason - is a policeman on a mission. He wants Julian dead and instructs officers to target him during an upcoming demonstration. During the demonstration, police plants make sure trouble starts. During the ensuing melee, the police beat Julian to death. An aside - as I write this I am trying to watch the second episode again. It is awful. Utter garbage. The fact that this is written by a black person is even more galling. John Ridley, off the back of the critically acclaimed 12 Years A Slave - once again I must admit I was not a fan of that either, though I did not hate it - is an American - and how it shows! - has already received some backlash for casting an Asian Indian, Pinto, in the lead role of a black activist drama, weakly offering that his own real life partner is of Asian descent and a strong woman! If we all decide to write dramas based on the people we like and admire, whilst using historical themes as our context, we can no doubt look forward to a version of Jews being liberated en masse by a black man because some well place writer totally knows a guy who would do that!If that was the only issue with this drama, it would be a minor one. An important one, but in the context of the sheer awfulness of the show, a minor one. The sets are good and the clothing, though it would be a poor wardrobe department that could not recreate the seventies look with so much material and pictorial material available. The music? What the hell are they listening to?!I never such music in an English black household. Though actors are always struggling for work and black actors even more so, I can only believe that on seeing this, that there are many black actors who feel they dodged a bullet.I thought perhaps it was my age, as I was only a small child when this was set in the early seventies, but it is too terrible to be that. Ridley, for some reason known only to himself, decides that in the U.K.- in the early seventies - that Indian Asians, African blacks, West Indian blacks, Irish and Afro-Americans all hung out together, fighting against a near apartheid-like police force and their own liberal minded brethren! He introduces gun play - they can't get any money together but they can get a gun?! - in the first episode. This is set in England! Nineteen seventies England! Gun was not easy to come by and if a black person had shot a white person of uniform - Marcus shoots an ambulance man - in the seventies, they would have called out the army! Now suffering episode three - oh god! - they are trying to mix with Marxist! This show is so mind-numbingly dreadful that I am struggling to find enough adjectives to describe it. It is meandering, clichéd, indulgent, unbelievable, dreary, uninspired, mistaken and pointless. I really do not recommend this show, not even for curiosity value!

Guerrilla is following in the trend of casting a nonblack woman opposite a black male lead. In this instance, 12 years a slave producer Riley overlooked the much more realistic casting of Lupita, who played a raped slave, to cast a virtually unknown and moderately talented East Indian actress Pinto in the leading female role. It is clear that his choice isn't based on historical events even though the setting is within a historical context, the black power movement in the UK; rather it was purely cosmetic reasons as if a black woman is not marketable. Although there is some evidence of East Indian male leaders' involvement in the black power movement, there exists none that demonstrates Indian women at the forefront of the Movement. In contrast, there clearly were a significant number of black women who helped build, lead, and maintain the Movement, and their involvement isdocumented. Ridley claims that his choice of an East Indian woman was based upon his personal relationship with his Asian lover, who he claims is a fighter. This trend of casting nonblack women in leading roles does a disservice to black actresses. In fact, this appears to be a trend that is exclusively occurring among black male actors, e.g. Will Smith, Idris Elba, Mike Colter, Denzel Wasington, Omari Hardwick, etc. In this instance it is a misrepresentation of history. It would have been fantastic to see Lupita make the transition from a beaten, raped, slave to that of a guerrilla in the armed struggle for liberation of her people, but apparently she didn't meet the cosmetic criteria. I understand and support black women for boycotting it.