When I was growing up, you were called every racial slur under the sun and you learned to accept it. An inquest found he died unlawfully. It was an abject death: an unlawful killing that, for his campaigners, represented another instance of a black British man dying in a senseless way. Published 22 February 2012. We also hear the all too familiar refrain “I can’t breathe” uttered, time and again in the last moments of his internal monologue. Available online This superb play draws on the final hours of Christopher Alder, who died in police custody in Hull in 1998 Last modified on Thu 25 Feb 2021 04.41 EST Christopher Alder… Former paratrooper Christopher Alder (PA) The play premiered at the Soho Theatre in 2019 and has now been filmed and will be available to watch at … Actor and host Richard Blackwood, 48, on staying sexy, giving up the rapping and his challenging new play, Typical. [Laughs] I think if you’re blessed to still have it when you’re nearly 50, then… not flaunt it – I wouldn’t do naked – but get it out there, motivate. It’s the last day of Christopher Alder [a black former Army paratrooper who died in police custody]. You’re in the world of entertainment so why limit yourself? [Laughs] It was very tough. It’s extremely heavy. A powerful exploration of racism and how British society stereotypes Black … You don’t want to tell people the premise of it because you want the audience not to know where it’s going to go but it’s a true story. Tag: Christopher Alder. Written by award-winning playwright Ryan Calais Cameron and directed by Anastasia Osei-Kuffour, Typical uncovers the man and the humanity behind the tragic true-life events of Black British ex-serviceman Christopher Alder and the injustice that still remains twenty years since his story emerged. Christopher Alder was killed in the custody suite of a Hull police station in 1998 Two officers were accused of spying on Mr Alder's sister, Janet, and her barrister available online via Soho Theatre On Demand. Blackwood keeps up with every note, mesmerising us with every tic, smile or grimace. The first one was harder because it seemed more severe, only being allowed out for an hour and stuff like that. Christopher Alder’s last moments, in April 1998, were unforgivably brutal. Soho Theatre’s “On Demand” platform will premiere Typical , the film version of the hit stage play from 24 February 2021. I had a good time but it’s a young person’s sport. It wasn't until I got the rest of the CCTV evidence of 108 hours that I actually heard the police officers speaking about CS gassing Christopher, making references to banana boats, speaking about the Ku Klux Klan, and saying that they should've put him in a cell and pretended he was asleep. Christopher Alder, 37, was arrested on 1 April 1998, and died on the floor of Queens Gardens police station in Hull, East Yorkshire, without regaining consciousness. Christopher was CS gassed and he wa… His companions, who later testified that at this stage of the evening Alder had drunk only two pints of lager and two bottles of Beck's beerand "seemed sober", declined the invitation. Download the Metro newspaper app for free on App Store and Google Play, Includes exclusive content, spoilers and interviews before they're seen on the site. Christopher is portrayed by EastEnders and Hollyoaks actor Richard Blackwood who says he hopes the tragic story will have even greater resonance in … Play about Christopher Alder's death to be turned into film. Kéllé came to my son’s christening when he was six months and he’s 20 now. If I was trying to rap to the young kids, it would be like, ‘Do you want to sit down somewhere?’ But with acting and stand-up, you actually get better with time and with age. Christopher Alder. Now the younger generation, luckily, don’t get that. hristopher Alder’s last moments, in April 1998, were unforgivably brutal. In a claustrophobic closeup, it tightens its gaze around Richard Blackwood’s face so we cannot avert our eyes, even as his character chokes on his own blood. Yeah, yeah. Blackwood’s hero is instantly likable, brushing off daily microaggressions (“Tell myself it’s not about race”), talking himself down from a confrontation when three white men first round on him at the nightclub (“I know the cost”), and intent on being the bigger man. Yet what is marked about Ryan Calais Cameron’s astounding play, written in rap-like rhyming verse and tracing the minutiae of its unnamed character’s final day, is that it bursts with life, zest, humour and hedonism even as it hurtles towards tragedy. I was at MTV and doing the Richard Blackwood Show so we’ve known each other since then. It’s extremely heavy. There is an exquisite balance between vulnerability and agitation, physicality and inner life. 5 Feb By Paul Downham No Comments. In 2018, playwright Ryan Calais Cameron wrote Typical, a one-man play which is based on the death of Christopher Alder, a Falklands veteran who died while handcuffed on the floor of a Hull police station in 1998. Until those excruciating moments, Typical feels like a day in the life of an urban everyman, granular in its detail, Joycean in its steam-of-consciousness as he wakes up, puts on the toast, thinks about his marriage, divorce, an office flirtation, and gets going. Typical is a stage film about the 1998 death of Christopher Alder while in police custody. Mr Alder, 37, choked to death while handcuffed in a Hull police station in 1998. Richard Blackwood hopes unlawful killing film ‘plants seed’ Actor Richard Blackwood can be seen in the filmed version of Typical, about the death in custody of an unarmed black man. A hit stage play exploring racism and stereotypes of black masculinity is being shown online for the first time from February 24. Directed by Anastasia Osei-Kuffour, Blackwood emphatically feels this last day in his bones, from the sleep rubbed from his eyes to the grumbling of his stomach and his hangover. When the heat rises, Blackwood inhabits the role of this father and former paratrooper more fully. So what we do is tell the harrowing story but we humanise the character, take you on a journey with him so you know him. The inquest at Hull Crown Court heard how officers laughed and joked while the father of two lay dying on the floor. It’s got to be a mix. Oh, good God, yeah. Soho Theatre and Nouveau Riche announce the World Premiere of Typical, the film version of the hit stage play, released exclusively on Soho Theatre On Demand from 24th February 2021. They use the term ‘micro-aggression’. Christopher Alder, 37, choked to death in a Hull police custody suite in 1998. Starring actor Richard Blackwood, view the film from 24 February. You were getting beaten up. Published 22 November 2011. “I believe this play is vital and should be seen as widely as possible, particularly now given the far overdue global fight for freedom, justice and liberation from overt, covert, and systemic racism. I will always be acting – that has no age limit, and stand-up has no age limit – but music and stuff? In 2018, playwright Ryan Calais Cameron wrote Typical, a one-man play which is based on the death of Christopher Alder, a Falklands veteran who died while handcuffed on … Christopher Ibikunle Alder was born in 1960 in Hull and was of Nigerian descent. They believed that Alder, whose trousers and pants had been pulled down to his ankles, was play-acting. If Calais Cameron’s script wants to convey a typical day in the life of a black British male, then this film highlights an ending that is also all too typical. Things were far more racist then. First staged in 2019, Typical is a play based on the true-life story of the last night of Christopher Alder, a 37-year-old Black father of two, computer trainee and former paratrooper. When the violence comes, the camera seems to throw the punches. The language is playful, kinetic, partly in patois, with sentences that syncopate and waver between poetry and song, and fizz with wordplay: “Looking at the weather, weather looking back in anger, weather look mad, weather looking temperamental, menstrual, weather looking bad.” And later, when the police handcuff him: “I’m being manhandled … heavy-handed men, heavy-hearted men.” It moves at speed and has a polyphonic effect, making the set feel as if it is occupied by more than just one actor. And this period, I’ve been working so it’s not been so hard for me. He really enjoys helping the young kids with his sports therapy. Alder went on alone to the club a… Monkey-like noises could be heard as Alder lay dead. Richard is reprising his role as Chris Adler in Typical, a play that explores racism in British society, after Adler died in police custody in 1998. In 2020 it was announced that Typical, a stage play about Christopher Alder’s death, is to be adapted into a film. But watching it back, it feels like it was written for me. A very caring soul. Paul Anderson’s lighting and Duramaney Kamara’s sound do much of the work in switching scenes, from bedroom to nightclub, with discombobulating effects. In this country, we’ve been told to stay in one field but then so many of us of a certain age remember watching the old films where they did it all. Richard Blackwood in Ryan Calais Cameron’s Typical. Typical is available online via Soho Theatre On Demand until 31 March. Injured in a fight at a nightclub, he took his final breath in police custody. NEWS. Now that's something that I have held on to all this time within the fight, I'm not willing to accept the excuses that they give time and time again when somebody dies at the hands of the police. Mozart: Wiegenlied KV 350 (Album Version) Sumi Jo Christopher Alder Suyoen Kim Clara-Jumi Kang Wen Xiao Zheng Minje Sung Evgeni Bozhanov. As a father, especially when you’re bringing up a young boy, you’ve got to rein them in because young boys can be wild. Names of those others who have died in UK police custody fill the screen at the end along with a final note: “This film is dedicated to all those who have died because of systemic racism.”. The family of Christopher Alder, 37, thought they had given him a dignified burial in 2000 after he died in horrific circumstances in a police cell two years earlier. He’s always wanted to help since he was young. More recently, a documentary series entitled Black Kings Upon Hull featured an interview between Janet Alder and Chiedu Oraka, during which he praised her as not only a freedom fighter and activist, but also the ‘strongest and bravest person’ he’s ever met. Oh yeah, they’re regimented. Christopher Alder was an army veteran whose death on the floor of a Hull police station in 1998 provoked national outrage. I am! All the elements that need to be played, the hard theatrical side of things… but then you had to be quite comical because you had to essentially fall in love with Christopher before it turns dark. On the night of his death, Christopher Alder, a 37-year-old former paratrooper with a medal for services in Northern Ireland, had been involved in a fight outside the Waterfront nightclub in Hull. Christopher Alder death: Body exhumed from Hull grave. Play on TIDAL or open in our Desktop app Share. He was brought up in the care system with his siblings and then joined the British Army at … It was an abject death: Intent on being the bigger man … Typical. In America, police brutality is rife and when I was a teenager here, it was rife. I’m not saying you didn’t get upset by it but it was normal to be called the N-word. In the wake of George Floyd's killing, Christopher's sister Janet is campaigning for more to be done to … MORE : Joel Dommett teases huge surprise act in final three of The Masked Singer: ‘No-one’s been saying it’, MORE : Sienna Miller praises ‘grace and dignity’ of Chadwick Boseman, who donated part of his salary to her. And the Girls in their Sunday Dresses by Zakes Mda Livestream (online rehearsed reading) 28 Feb 2021 The inquest in 2000 decided that Christopher Alder, a 37-year-old father of two,had been unlawfully killed. He was relieved when he came to the end of the run of the play Typical in 2019, which tells the true story of former paratrooper Christopher Alder, 37, who choked to death while handcuffed and lying on the floor of a police station in Hull in 1998. I was given a section to audition so when they said, ‘You’ve got the role,’ I read the whole thing and realised it was going to be extremely hard. He’s in a rap group, still growing and he’s very funny but I’m not sure he wants to be an act. We took the play to Edinburgh first in 2019 and I went into it not knowing. I know. Yeah, but if you’re doing rap music… I’m nearly 50. Typical is available to watch on Soho Theatre on Demand from February 24. His mum did very well and I was a disciplinarian. Playwright Ryan Calais Cameron created a one-man play, Typical, based on Christopher Alder’s death, which is now in the process of being adapted into … We’re lucky to be working so we’re not going to break the rules or disrespect the public. Typical Film – World premiere on Soho Theatre on demand. Typical, starring former Eastenders actor Richard Blackwood, focuses on the life and death of Christopher Alder. Injured in a fight at a nightclub, he took his final breath in police custody. There was no ‘micro’ about it back then. Metro newspaper is still available for you to pick up every weekday morning or you can download our app for all your favourite news, features, puzzles... and the exclusive evening edition! Top Tracks. At around 7 pm on 31 March 1998, Alder went out for the evening in Hull with two friends, visiting several local bars and a fast food restaurant before Alder suggested going on to The Waterfront Club (later renamed The Sugar Mill), a nightclub on Prince's Dock Street in the Old Town area of the city. Christopher Alder death: Government payout to family. Your new filmed play, Typical, is a much heavier project than we’re used to seeing you do, isn’t it? Christopher Alder's family mark his death. [Back to London accent] It sounds easy to do but it’s hard, especially if you don’t have Scouse roots. Yet there is a sense of the hyper-real in the set, which is minimalist and modern: a cube of a room, with a few boxes that are manoeuvred to create new atmospheres in an instant. 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The final scene takes us through the harrowing details of Alder’s death: the police video footage suggesting monkey noises were made as he lay dying, and the handcuffing and dragging of his body into the police station in Hull. If you could act, you had to be able to sing and dance and have comic timing. Wear masks, no scenes where we’re close together. [In Scouse accent] Not yet but I can do it, if you know what I mean. No, he’s a sports therapist. Available onlineThis superb play draws on the final hours of Christopher Alder, who died in police custody in Hull in 1998, Last modified on Thu 25 Feb 2021 11.21 GMT. First staged as a solo show in 2019 and now created by Nouveau Riche and Soho theatre for a screen version, it becomes a perfect, if eviscerating, nugget of dramatic performance in its new medium; theatrical in setting but also sharply focused and dreadful in its filmic intimacy. Christopher Alder … It’s a typical day, says Blackwood, but he is determined to make it a special one with a big night out. Ryan Calais Cameron hopes film about black veteran dying in police custody will ignite conversation about racism.