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Paul Robeson and film should have been a perfect fit – the 20th century’s first black superstar had everything. Presence, voice and fierce screen intelligence that projected from the screen. British audiences adored him, ‘Our Paul’ they called him but for Robeson cinema was a constant betrayal of his political idealism and desire to escape the prism of race. Matthew Sweet considers the confusing threads that make up the 1935 empire flag waver Sanders of the River, which still hummed to the astonishing power of Robeson’s voice in the Canoe Song.

It took several Hungarian impresarios, an Edwardian songsmith, a Polish Jewish genius of the Berlin cabaret scene and Paul Robeson to make Sanders of the River. A retrograde fantasy of British imperial rule in far-flung Africa, shot largely on the banks of the River Thames. But when Paul Robeson sang the Canoe Song audiences adored him as ‘our Paul’. Matthew Sweet revisits the contradictory ways Robeson, cinema and song intersected.

Producer: Mark Burman