In My Own Words: Hanif Kureishi

With wit, intelligence and honesty, the playwright, novelist and filmmaker looks back on his work, the culture it emerged from and recent events that radically changed his life.

For over four decades, the author of My Beautiful Laundrette, The Buddha of Suburbia, My Son the Fanatic, Venus, Intimacy and The Black Album has been an astute chronicler of British life. Using a trove of archive photographs and film, Kureishi reflects on his father’s experiences as an immigrant in the post-war years, his own youth and entry into the world of theatre, the tumult around the publication of The Satanic Verses and its continued reverberations, and how he has transformed the life around him into a work of art. Made by Kureishi’s long-time friend Nigel Williams as part of In My Own Words, a new BBC Arts strand for BBC One, this intimate portrait probes the writer’s examination of race in the UK and offers a moving account of his family life, which was turned upside down following an accident he experienced in 2022.

An exclusive preview of this upcoming BBC One In My Own Words series, followed by a live online conversation with Hanif Kureishi and director Nigel Williams will take place on June 15th.