Sitting in Limbo (2020 TV Movie) User Reviews

Defies belief

[peterrichboy · 8/10 · 10 June 2020]

This is a shocking true story of Anthony Bryan who was a victim of the Windrush scandal. A honest hard working man who had spent 50 years living and working in the UK. Married with children who were UK citizens who's life was ruined over a three year period.

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary the British government seemed determined to deport Mr Bryant to Jamaica based on what amounted to a lost passport.

Sadly not all victims of the Windrush scandal were as fortunate as Mr Bryant many were wrongfully deported and many are still awaiting compensation.

The performances from the whole cast are terrific in particular Patrick Robinson in the lead roll. 8/10

Shocking but brilliantly told

[thewhelk · 8/10 · 11 June 2020]

This powerful BBC film encapsulates the traumas endured by the Windrush generation. It makes for uncomfortable but topical viewing. I'm proud to be British, but, for the first time in my lifetime, feel truly ashamed of my country's behaviour. Films like this are vital - they help educate and ensure recklessness like this is not ever permitted to happen again.

The drama never felt overdone. A more subtle approach was taken and it pays off. Life is full of lighthearted, enjoyable moments, especially when family are involved. Such moments are beautifully captured here, juxtaposing the deeper, darker themes of anguish, hopelessness and betrayal. Fabulous lead performances too.

Its so embarrassing

[robdrummond · 8/10 · 14 June 2020]

This is such a stain on recent U.K. history. Its not a matter of colour - it's a matter of honour and morals.

Someone arrived Legitimately in U.K. aged 8. Builds a whole life here and is told "he is illegally living here"

Not just that - the way "the system" dealt with these British Citizens is appalling. The Politicians of all shades should hang their heads in shame.

Especially one or to in particular. (Mentioning no names)

Racism on display for the whole world to watch!

[NestorTheGreat · 7/10 · 5 November 2022]

In the incredibly bizarre and horrid years of Trump, Torries and the return of white supremacists, the far-right idiocracy, or beaurocracy- I always get them confused-, came up with a time and money saving scheme to "make the UK white again"! This half-baked plan had no regard for the massive, irreparable damage it caused to human beings: our brothers and sisters!

This made-for-TV feature is based on the incomprehensible punishment an innocent man went through because of indifference, ignorance on the part of jailers, and blatant racism! A whole segment of a society that were used them when it was necessary for the elite, and discarded the next minute when their services no longer mattered! A harrowing look at an empire's heartless history and evil acts upon innocent citizens today!

If this film does not make your blood boil, we are doomed! What goes around comes around, and the fall of empires are bookmarked by heartless acts such as those portrayed in this movie.

Patrick Robinson is brilliant - Should be required viewing for those working at the Home Office

[azanti0029 · 10/10 · 24 June 2020]

Amber Rudd and Theresa May both have a lot to answer for in their careers and few errors of judgement are as shameful as this story, which is still a dreadful stain on the history of Britian.

Anthony Bryan, though Jamican born has lived and worked in the UK all of his life when his Mother came over as part of the Windrush era on the promise of work and opporturnity. If ever a family served as a prime example of hard working immigrants just seeking an honest days pay and a better life, then Bryan and his family were it, with a Mother who served as a nurse for the NHS for thirty years, she's now in poor health and living back in Jamica so when Anthony applies for a new passport to travel back and see her, his status as a British Citizen is brought in at the worst time possible - when the Home Office implemented its new policy to push immigration as an election issue and allocated their teams the job of finding cases that they could propell at the door as fast as possible in order to meet targets. This was incidentally a policy which the Home Office at first denied then later admitted to which led to the resignation of Amber Rudd (Not, notably Theresa May who became destined to be one the worst, unfeeling and uncaring Prime Ministers of UK history, so she had another role awaiting her)

The film follows the cold and complex system of Iimmigration that Anthony and his family are dragged into, which results in him losing his job and his home, with little compensation on the horizon for either, until finally he's forced to take on a solictor he cannot afford in order to seek justice.

It's bad enough that such things should be happening in a modern Britain of 2017 so its quite right and proper that the issue should receive dramatic focus and the cast here take to their roles with great gusto. The pairing of massively underated actor Patrick Robinson and fabulous Nadine Marshall is excellent casting, as Anthony Bryan and his partner Janet who find their lives unravelled as a result of the heartless actions of an uncaring government who employ an equally uncaring group of personnel to weed out the 'low hanging fruit' to add to their immigration targets. The supporting cast of Pippa Bennet-Warner, Jay Simpson and C.J Beckford do really well with largely unwritten roles as a group of family and friends going up against a bureacractic machine whose soul purpose is there to send people home to countries they're no longer familiar with. Piers Morgan, seen briefly in a historical news clip, summed the simplicity of the issue from the perspective of the protagonists - He's British, get him his Passport and let him go him and visit his Mother in Jamaica.

These events will go down as one of the most embarassing stains on British history, up there with Stephen Lawrence, Hillsborough, The Marchioness disaster, to name but a few, where the ordinary people are forced to take on a bastion of the establishment to find Justice. Compelling and important viewing and let's see Baftas for Robinson and Marshall please.

Horrifying portrayal of a modern scandal

[wellthatswhatithinkanyway · 9/10 · 17 November 2020]

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

The true life story of Anthony Bryan (Patrick Robinson), a man who spent his whole life living and working in the UK, after moving here with his mother at the age of eight, only to find himself caught up in the crossfire of the government's 'Hostile Environment' policy, where he was suddenly challenged to produce documentation that he was legally living in the UK. What followed was an unthinkable nightmare, as he found himself plunged into an unduly punitive cycle, where he was forced to report to a government agency each week, before being rounded up and held in a detention centre in Dover, hundreds of miles from his home.

It's easy to think horror stories are things that just get stored in the deepest reaches of the human mind, purely fictional things that exist purely in the back of our souls. It's unimaginable that any of us could truly find ourselves plunged into a 'living nightmare', which we have no control over or power to stop, and yet only a few years ago, that is exactly what happened to Anthony Bryan, and numourous other members of the 'Windrush' generation, as news and politics was filled with rhetoric about 'getting tough on immigration.'

Although director Stella Corradi and writer Stephen S. Thompson do not shy away from dramatizing the effect on Anthony's nearest and dearest, including wife Janet (Nadine Marshall), daughter Eileen (Pippa Bennett-Warner) and son Gary (C.J. Beckford), it's still ultimately his personal, living ordeal, and so it's lucky that lead star Robinson manages to deliver a performance of such quiet understatement, an honest, hard working, law abiding man suddenly hounded with such Gestapo like force, before losing his liberty and getting caged up like a criminal, and the subsequent impact on his mental health and sanity.

Shamefully, the whole Windrush scandal largely went over my head, but this is the first time I've seen the full horror of what actually went on, and it really gets under your skin. An uncomfortable, but well made, well acted and very effective piece indeed. ****

Immaculate performance, emotional ordeal

[samabc-31952 · 8/10 · 23 May 2021]

Year 1948. Post-WWII era.. British government invited around 500+ workers from Jamaica to settle in UK to help rebuild their country. The first batch of those settlers embarked HMT Empire Windrush. Their offsprings are known as the Windrush generation in UK. In 2010, the Home office destroyed the landing cards of thousands of Windrush immigrants and in 2012, David Cameron's administration formed a committee called hostile environment working group that echoed a broader rancour towards migrants in the UK. As the local officers and managers kept hunting for 'low hanging fruit' (easy target), some 850 people were wrongly detained between 2012-17. And one of them was Anthony Bryan. This is his dramatic memoir of his ordeal. Patrick Robinson delivers a mature immaculate performance. An eye opening and thought provoking drama as often we turn a blind eye to the struggles and challenges that 'not legal' migrants face. As Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary who later resigned, apologized that this policy was a mistake and she said that she saw this only as an individual issue not as a systemic problem.. A must watch ..

Outstanding Drama & True story of Injustice

[graham-harvey · 8/10 · 11 November 2020]

The other reviews here describe it all. This is an outrage that a man who came to UK when he was 8 would get treated like an illegal at the age of 58! What is wrong with the bureaucrats at UK immigration? Are they total idiots. This poor guy got placed in a detention centre like a prison, he loses his job. Immigration offered to 'repatriate' him back to Jamaica! Outrageous! A story of racism, prejudice & mistreatment. And he is not the only one who has been victimised by a department clearly being run by nasty characters with limited humanity or intelligence. A fine piece of drama to tell a story that will remain a record of truth. And this all happened only 3-4 years ago!

Devastatingly Powerful

[david-meldrum · 9/10 · 28 May 2021]

Deeply powerful true-life drama about just one of the people so egregiously treated during Britain's Windrush scandal. It's understated, and all the more moving for it - simmering with rage, you find yourself keeping tears at bay for almost the whole running time.

Brilliant but disturbing

[nicholls_les · 10/10 · 31 December 2020]

One of the best dramas on TV recently. Patrick Robinson acts the main part very very well and is so convincing as Anthony Bryan. But the story is a very disturbing one that shames the British government. How they can have the tenacity to persecute commonwealth citizens who have moved to the UK and worked decades, paying Taxes and working and raising a family beggars belief. This program should be required viewing in schools, and maybe shown to all politicians.

Knowing that this film is based on a true story has forever altered the way I think of life and others within it..

[wonderstone_entertainment · 8/10 · 30 August 2021]

This film was incredibly moving, as its story and brilliant presentation eliminated any sight of actors. It simply allowed a loving family to play out its tragedy before my eyes. Within ten minutes of watching this film, I quickly realized that I wasn't sneaking a peek at the injustice sought upon strangers from a foreign land but rather how easy it was for me, as an American, to not consider any other nationality of people to be a government's target for soul destruction because of the color of skin. So, quite honestly, this film didn't just educate me but humbled my very existence in the most entertaining way ever.

An Eternal Stain on the UK

[carloswilliamhughes · 8/10 · 6 May 2023]

The excellent drama series of the damage the Windrush Scandal did on people who believed they were legally as well as culturally British was brilliantly portrayed in this drama series based on the true story of Anthony Bryant (played by Patrick Robinson of 'Casualty' fame) and the three years he had to endure about a possible deportation to Jamaica, a country he hadn't been back to since he was eight years old because of an administrative oversight and the ill thought out policies of the government of Theresa May.

You might watch this documentary and think its far fetched, that it would be the actions of a repressive, fascist society and not modern Britain that would detain, try to deport and destroy purposely records of British people born abroad to prove their legality so they could deport them instead, this drama series highlights the many abuses the British government of the day put on these people and in many cases, were very successful in wrongly detaining and deporting innocent rightful, British citizens.

This is an important tome of this time and we should not forget that we have governments that abuse their powers to quench the thirst of populism and that innocent, law abiding citizens are victims of this cruel, short-sightedness. A great drama series, moving and well acted.

Excellent rendition of a disgustingly terrible scandal

[dcarroll74 · 10/10 · 14 May 2022]

I am both delighted and horrified to have watched this, thankfully it was only around 90 minutes long. Any longer and I don't believe I could've watched till the end.

It was actually one of England's darlings which first brought this scandal to my attention, Joanna Lumley. It was part of a series she had previously made, and the irony of it was, she had travelled on the Empire Windrush, when she left India for England.

I didn't see this movie when it came out, I found it on a particular "site" which allowed me to download for later viewing, which I did, in the company of my elderly mother. She was shocked by what she saw, as was I. And, because I was forearmed with historical knowledge delivered by Joanna, I was able to fill in some gaps, which I thought would not come to light in the movie

What I wasn't aware of, didn't come to light till the end, the destruction of the landing cards by officials, which played into the hands of those who came up with the idea of processing and deporting the offspring "illegals" of those "invited" by the British Government, to come rebuild England post WWII. It reminded me of how Joanna took on the British Government and won, the rights of the world famous Gurkhas to stay and live in England, when they retired after serving in the British Military.

I'm glad I'm Irish, and not British. I would be embarrassed and shamed, if MY Government did something similar. I would do a Joanna.

Cudos to everyone involved in the creation and making of this important historical drama, it also reminded me of that excellent movie "Belle", about the eventual abolition of slavery. Two stories that needed to be told, and I'm sure there are more out there, waiting in the wings, waiting to be heard.

Frustrating - but maybe that's the point?

[philip-00197 · 20 September 2022]

It is a "must make" film and as such it is important that it is made - that the word gets out there. And... importance can be synonymous with quality - but only to a certain level. Documentaries can, to a large extent, be valued more on the message they convey than their artistic merit.

Sitting Limbo hovers between two genres; the informative and the artistic - as do many other "life story films". The genre is problematic as the end result is; either likely to be accused of diverging from facts under the "artistic licence" OR being true to history and respecting the facts to the point dullness.

Sitting in Limbo certainly edges toward the documentary format - it, unfortunately has not hit the sweet spot in the middle ground. And so recommendations become dependent on preference of style:

If you consider facts superior in importance to dramaturgy - chances are you will appreciate Stella Cor.radio's work. If, on the other hand, you value artistic accomplishments above facts - chances are you will feel Sitting in Limbo runs a little dry.

There is one argument which would make the above redundant, that is; IF the pacing of the film was an artists attempt to lure the viewer into similar frustration as that of our protagonist. If the "why is nothing happening" frustration is actually part of a greater master plan. If so, the greatness is likely to be appreciated by few - but would motivate some very high scoring. In any event - be prepared to feel frustration.