INTERVIEW WITH THE VOICE NEWSPAPER 1989

From Tesco To The Telly: But life has been far from easy for TV’s Pogus Caesar.

To Midlanders watching him on the box, the life of television presenter Pogus Caesar must seem blessed with good fortune. But for Pogus, broadcaster and artist, life has meant hard work and years of struggle. “The public have a perception of you as they want to imagine you” he says, “but people who know me know the truth.”

Smooth talking Pogus can be seen on Sundays on Central TV’s ethnic slot, ‘Here and Now’. He interviews glamourous stars like Carmen Munroe of the new Channel 4 comedy series ‘Desmond’s. He has just bought a house and is moving to Moseley, the trendy end of Birmingham. Yet he remembers when things were different. He came from St Kitts and most of his schooling was in Birmingham. After that his prospects were similar to those of a great many Afro – Caribbeans at that time.

“I started working in Tesco, ” he explains, “putting food on the shelves. At the time I thought because I had no qualifications I would not get a good job, so I started practising art and hoped to eventually work in advertising.” He got his chance to develop his painting when he became unemployed after working as a Chef at Birmingham’s Holiday Inn Hotel. By the early 80′s he was a struggling artist, until Acafess, a black run training agency gave him his first break.

He helped form the Acafess Community Cultural Arts Scheme and exhibited his work with them throughout the Midlands. A year later he was at the Handsworth Cultural Centre working with the probation service. There art was used to bring out the neglected talents of young black offenders.

It was through his knowledge of art in the Midlands that he was able to do bits of work for Channel 4′s ‘Black on Black’ and ‘Here and Now’ for Central TV. He also helped to co produce a half hour history of black people in Birmingham for ‘Black on Black’. And when the position as a presenter at ‘Here and Now’ became vacant, Pogus was there to fill it.

“The glamour thing wears off very quickly,” Pogus mused. “It is a job, I have always had to work my way up to things. to me one stage leads on to another.”

Simon Hinds, The Voice UK 1989

Broadcast 25 Oct 2010. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey7ijaXv6UQ

Birmingham film maker and photographer Pogus Caesar knows Handsworth well. He found himself in the centre of the 1985 riots and spent two days capturing a series of startling images. Caesar kept them hidden for 20 years. Why? And how does he see Handsworth now?.

The stark black and white photographs featured in the film provide a rare, valuable and historical record of the raw emotion, heartbreak and violence that unfolded during those dark and fateful days in September 1985.

Fantastic range of B/W photos depicting Black History in the UK.