The Dream

The documentary maker has a simple goal; to tell a story. But this central function is complicated by a myriad of factors: who to interview, what footage to use, choice of music, balance of the programme etc. So, by any criterion, 'Martin Luther King and the March on Washington' (BBC2) had a high bar to reach. And it cleared this bar by a mile. Narrated by Denzel Washington, this was a tale from the not to distant past of how Martin Luther King's Dream speech came to be given and the events on that extraordinary day in 1963. The American South was blighted by vile post-Civil War racist segregation. The mobilisation of tens of thousands of Blacks and Whites to protest the 'urgency of now', the soaring rhetoric of Dr King, the eventual persuasion of the Kennedy Administration to act - all combined to make this event one of the most empowering in American history. JFK's team feared endorsing the event because of the prospect of violence - this was a very real concern for Kennedy's advisors; contingency plans were made for the possibility of rioting on the Mall. But there was no violent protest, just the attendance of thousands rapt in awe, crying, riveted by Dr King's peroration. The 'Dream' lives on - and the courage of those who used passive resistance and civil disobedience eventually led to Barack Obama in the White House. Dr King's speech still as the power to reduce the listener to tears: 'Free at Last, Free at Last, Thank God Almighty, we are free at Last!'