Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Three Little Birds’ On BritBox, About Three Jamaican Women’s Ups And Downs In 1950s England

The new BritBox drama Three Little Birds is created and written by Sir Lenny Henry based on his own mother’s stories about emigrating from Jamaica to England in the 1950s, where she built a life and raised a family. To that end, it’s not a cautionary tale, but Henry isn’t shy to show the bumps his story’s main characters encounter along the way to establishing new lives.

THREE LITTLE BIRDS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Under a massive tree, a woman is seen burying a packet that she puts in a bag. She then looks around to see if anyone noticed.

The Gist: “KINGSTON, JAMAICA, 1957.” A large group of people are getting on a ship that will take them to England. Among them are sisters Leah Whittaker (Rochelle Neil) and Chantrelle Brahms (Saffron Coomber) and their very pious friend Hosanna Drake (Yazmin Belo). Leah is a bit trepidatious but Chantrelle can’t wait to start her new life. “England have a lot more going on than Jamaica and that’s a fact,” she tells her sister.

The trip is ostensibly to marry off Hosanna, a pastor’s daughter, to Leah and Chantrelle’s brother Aston Brahms (Javone Prince). To entice her, they show her a picture of Aston, which is actually a head shot of Harry Belafonte.

They arrive in England after their three-week journey across the Atlantic. Aston isn’t exactly what Hosanna expects, but Aston also thought someone else coming off the ship was Hosanna, so they’re even. The plan is that they’ll stay in London for the first night at a boarding house where Aston’s friend Gregory (Gamba Cole) lives, then drive to the smaller towns where they have jobs waiting: Chantrelle has a nanny gig and Leah and Hosanna will start factory jobs.

The women are horrified to see the room that Gregory got for them, in a surprisingly blighted neighborhood. But the good part is that a lot of Jamaicans stay there and the house is hopping with music and dancing every night. Chantrelle, ever looking for a good time, loves the atmosphere, but Leah is worried about Hosanna, who is busy quoting bible verses about sin to everyone there. Through the noise, though, she and Aston make a connection, which is solidified when he punches his “good friend” Gregory for hitting on Hosanna.

The house is raided by the police, and Hosanna, of all people, is arrested when she protests to the racist cops. Leah is angry with Chantrelle for getting busy with a man instead of keeping an eye on Hosanna like they both promised to do. Still, they reconcile and manage to get Hosanna out the next morning, making Chantrelle late for her first day at her new job.

Even though the women’s first two days in England have shown them just how a good part of the population wishes they weren’t there, for Leah it’s still a damn sight better than the situation she left. Her husband Ephraim (Leemore Marrett Jr.) was an abusive drunk, and we flash back to right before she left; he finds Leah’s stash of money and slugs her right in front of their three children.

She decides to spike his rum, and is all packed and ready to go when he gets back from a night of revelry. As he drunkenly gets fresh with her, he passes out. After giving him a couple of swift kicks, Leah takes her children out of the house and brings them to Momma Gladys (Susan Lawson-Reynolds), who vows to beat Ephraim with a paddle if he tries anything. Of course, Leah is reluctant to leave her children, but she knows she has to build a good life for herself in England before sending for them.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? We actually got some Lovecraft Country vibes from Three Little Birds, at least the non-monster portions of that show. It’s also reminding us more than a little of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series on Prime Video.

Our Take: Created and written by Sir Lenny Henry, who also plays Hosanna’s father Remuel, the story of Three Little Birds is based on his mother’s stories about leaving Jamaica for England in the 1950s. The idea is that the show is going to see Leah, Chantrelle and Hosanna establishing themselves in the UK, having to deal with the institutional racism that the first waves of immigrants to a country face.

Henry’s intention is to show that, despite the difficulties the women faced and the longing for home they likely had, they found a community in England and made it their home. The first episode shows us that Henry’s instinct was a good one, as he does a good job establishing just who these women are and the reasons why they’ve decided to start a new life so far away from home.

The show isn’t afraid to be funny, of course, but also isn’t afraid to show the dark side of what being Black and an immigrant in the UK was like in the fifties. But by concentrating on relationship between the sisters, Hosanna and Aston, Henry is showing that the bonds they create and strengthen are stronger than the factors that could bring them down.

It also helps that the performances of Neil, Belo and Coomber are fantastic. They are playing women who are strong and sure of themselves, which helps them get past the difficulties they face either back home in Jamaica, in Leah’s case, or what they end up facing in England. The more we see of the three women standing tall as they establish themselves in their new home, the better the show will be.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: After dropping of Chantrelle, and convincing Hosanna to stay after her first harrowing night, Leah, Hosanna and Aston drive to the Midlands. Shirley and Lee’s “Let The Good Times Roll” plays as we see the car drive up the highway.

Sleeper Star: Javone Prince is funny as Aston, but we most loved him in the scene where he defends Hosanna’s honor by slugging Gregory.

Most Pilot-y Line: None that we could find.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Three Little Birds is intended to be a feelgood series, but it’s not schmaltzy and doesn’t shy away from the issues Jamaicans and other Black people faced in England in the 1950s.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.