Empire Road

rappers used to watch Desmond in the States on BET.

Norman Beaton, the legendary actor who played Desmond, who was also known for starring in other pioneering Black British shows such as Empire Road and The Fosters, tragically passed away on the 13th of December 1994 at the age of 60.

It was Norman's decline in health and untimely death that ultimately resulted in the end of the show.

This is Crix reflecting on what it was like to work with the iconic actor and how he brought the character Desmond to life.

Fortunately, Rudolph was able to carry that visibility elsewhere.

In 1978, he joined the cast of Empire Road, Britain's first authentic attempt at a long-growing black-led drama, written and directed by black talent.

Through the 80s and 90s, he kept building a range that television rarely afforded black actors.

He played a barrister in Black Silk, a police constable alongside Rowan Atkinson in Thin Blue Line, proof that the industry could see him as more than that role that made him famous.

The latter recognising the Rudolph Walker Foundation, which he founded in 2009 to help disadvantaged young people build careers in the industry that took him a lifetime to break into.

From a sitcom that laughed at its community to a soap that has now outlasted every co-star, Rudolph Walker's career is proof that British television would not be the same without our black breakthrough figures.

The terrible representation of black people on screen in the 70s is why the creation of Empire Road was such a significant moment of history in black British television.

was the first authentic attempt at a long-running drama addressing Britain's growing multicultural society.