Lewes Cinema - Amazing Grace

The slave trade wasn’t abolished, as the media would have you believe, 200 years ago in 1807. But, crucially, an Act was passed in Parliament banning British ships from transporting slaves, particularly to the New World, which effectively nailed the coffin lid tight onto arguably the most immoral business in modern history. One man was primarily responsible, against many odds, for pushing the Bill through Parliament - a Yorkshire MP named William Wilberforce. This biopic, starring Welsh actor Ioan Gruffud as the politician apparently known as ‘Wilbur’, is the story of that man’s draining battle for the liberty of so many others.
Director Michael Apted has produced a worthy production about this worthy campaign, using a cast of mainly British actors, jumping between two eras ten years apart to show how Wilberforce overcame periods of intense depression and self-doubt before triumphing in the Commons. His was not a one-man show - he was helped by former slave trader John Newton (Albert Finney in fine form), former slave Oloudah Equiano (a solid acting debut for Youssou N’dour), political ally William Pitt (the splendidly named Benedict Cumberbatch) and love interest Barbara Spooner (seasoned period pain Romola Garai). It’s a tale of right against wrong, which doesn’t explore the middle ground, and which ends in a tear-jerking rendition of the title song on a set of bagpipes. Perhaps there will be a new adaptation of the subject in 2033, 200 years after the Slavery Abolition Act was finally passed, a month after Wiberforce’s death. DL