A tribute to Benjamin Zephaniah was screened on BBC4 on Saturday night to mark the first anniversary of the poet’s death. Dread Poets Society, a high-spirited and often hilarious fantasy in which Zephaniah encounters Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and John Keats on a halted train from Birmingham to Cambridge, was preceded by a heartfelt tribute by actor Timothy Spall, who starred alongside Zephaniah in the original play screened in 1992.

In the play the old Romantic poets – Byron is kitted out in the style of Adam Ant, while Shelley trashes the wiring of the railway carriage – are forced to acknowledge Rastafarian Zephaniah’s rap skills, as well as his looks, in the case of Mary Shelley.

In his tribute Timothy Spall recalled shooting the film “in a siding just outside Wolverhampton, in a shunting yard”. He said of the play that “you get the understanding that … poetry doesn’t have to be what poetry is ‘perceived’ to be, or what is ‘owned by academia …

“Benjamin’s poetry has always been bitingly political, bitingly accurate, bitingly revealing, without being in any way sanctimonious. It has a joy in it.

“We went out together, and we went to Handsworth, and the Balti Mile. We became friends, which I’m very proud of, because I think he was a genius.

“When I heard Benjamin had died, I was stunned and deeply saddened … he really did reach so many people … He became that hackneyed phrase, a national treasure, and he did it on his own terms.”

 

You can watch Timothy Spall’s tribute here

 

and watch a repeat of Dread Poets Society here

 

Background: 'A joyful and fantastic legacy'