chirpy piano tune plays. history is — thankfully and finally — beginning to accord a rightful place to those men and women of the windrush generation. you look beautiful. how are you? it is, i believe, crucially important that we should truly see and hear these pioneers who stepped off the empire windrush at tilbury injune 1948, only a few months before i was born. and those who followed over the decades to recognise and celebrate the immeasurable difference that they, their children and their grandchildren have made to this country. many served with distinction in the british armed forces during the second world war, just as their fathers and grandfathers had in the first world war. once in britain, they worked hard, offering their skills to rebuild a country during peacetime and seeking opportunities to forge a better future for themselves and their families. when they arrived on our shores with little more than what they were able to carry with them, few could hardly have imagined then how they and those that followed them would make such a profound and permanent contribution to british life. we were often ex—servicemen, to come back to britain. to build the country back. during the war, a lot- of things that shouldn't be done wasn't done. britain was flattened by the germans. and a lot of west indian come. there was a shortage of workers here. england have the money, but jamaica have the men. i heard about it three . months before it came. i bought my ticket. £28 something. and i remember something pence. and i was looking forward to it. - this year, as we honour the legacy and achievements of the windrush generation, i dearly hope that we can continue to embrace differences, listen to each other�*s stories, and learn from one another�*s experiences. it is these stories that help light the path of progress and remind us of a fundamental truth — that though we might all be different, every individual, no matter their background, has something special to contribute to our society in a way that strengthens us all. well, it's not every day that you're approached by the king. honestly, when they first emailed me, i thought i it was a scam. i was like, ok. so the king selected me? yeah, right. and your sister and daughter, your daughter, your sister is an olympian? three times. yes. well, i don't know. 400 meters. oh, amazing. a lot of my work is about escapism. i'm going to get right in here. don't mind me. and in this sense, i'm engaging with a man and his family and his story in a very real way. that would be perfect. jesse's a remarkable woman. she's from an incredible generation and she's seen so much history. and it's nice to be able to documentjust a tiny bit of that history. i'm here to take a few photos of her and do a few sketches and try and take something back to my studio that i can use. in her portrait. what do you think? leave it. i thought you wouldn't fit... as an artist, it's _ opportunities like this that offer me a chance to tell. people stories that i'm sure consider themselves unseen. it's nice. it's important to understand history. a project like this where i guess we're dealing with a lot of histories that oftentimes feel swept under the rug, it's good to get, you know, from the source, and then maybe it can make a start in a direction of rectifying some of those gaps in some of those stories, some of those bits that are missing. well, this is clifton powell. he's going to be i doing your portrait. it's a pleasure to meet you. pleasure meeting you. this is new to me as well. you know that. i have to call my niece on my landline to ask her what's going on on here. i was so nervous when i first met carmen because i've literally grown up seeing her on television. what does it mean? the question of the windrush generation, which is my parents' generation, that question of migrating from one place and all the kinds of expectations and then the actual of what happens once that move has taken place and that person's perspective on the life they've lived here. so, those things were immediately fascinating and interesting. have you had your - portraits painted before? no, no. it's going to be | your first time? the photos on the wall has inspired me. - what family means to you. yes. you know, and it's a beautiful thing that i will try as much. as possible to touch base on the process of making the portrait. i'm actually working - on my uk visa documents. i'm going on them and i feel| like it's very symbolic for us. when i go back to ghana, i'm going to, like, put- all the images together. i'm looking forward to bringing your portrait to life. _ my name isjohn mitchell richard. i was born injamaica, the parish of portland, the district of prospect. alfred gardner, born in kingston, jamaica, 27th january 1926. delisa augustus bernard. i was born 1928. i was born in, at the time, british guyana. oh, gosh, it's very difficult. i have to sort of come away again in order to tell you what it was like, because it wasjust like home. how do you describe home? you know? my family was very orthodox methodist, and so i inherited that christian background with discipline and hard work. it was a big family. my siblings, of course, and the parents. - my father died early, - in the early '505, so i stay home with my mother to look after the younger ones. - i don't like to- remember some of it. but one thing i decided, - i wasn't going to steal to help the younger ones. i work and i work. my father sent me to learn. dress—making. when i small, i used to do, make my own clothes for myself. i did everything i was, everything a wife should do, everything. at one time, i thought i could do anything a boy could do. idid. i didn't know that there was a life to come. - edna may henry. born in jamaica. when i had the phone call about they wanted to do a portrait for my mum, i was over the moon. i kept it quiet for a while before i'd even told my mother. i think it's fantastic. she deserves this because of what she contributed for wales. i have not been to wales before. it's part of my process to dress my models and i decided that it might be fun just to spend some time with her, to get to know her and to warm up together over shopping. because who doesn't like to shop? well, that's fantastic. to know that, you know, i'm painting somebody. from jamaica — the same place that i'm from... i it's an experience. it's a new experience for me. you know, it shouldn't be, but it is, you know? - oh, that's lovely. my name is gilda eunice oliver, and i was born in and bear road district. so i was wondering if... if you like this with like a blouse underneath. yeah. or a scarf. like a silk scarf or something like that. i don't know much right now. i'm looking forward to speaking to her. i do know that she worked as a health care professional and that she's a very proud woman and raised a family here and has, i think, probably as deep connection to herjamaican roots as she does to her british roots. i spent 23 years in the hospital. nursing assistant. i was a nurse auxiliary. i washed the patients, i feed them, comfort them, let them feel good. yeah, we have a laugh sometimes. there's some that can't feed themselves and we have to feed them. we have to bathe them and have to dress them and sometimes some of them dirty themselves. and we have to take them to the bathroom. and we have to bathe them. i didn't likejust... i used, i like to put them in the bath and give them a good bath. i know that they're clean. dress them and put them in the chair to sit. sometimes they try to be rough to me, but i don't, i didn't take no mind. you don't pay no mind. some of the rest of them, as soon as they get that, they stick to you. because we were so kind to them. they stick to you. it was a hard job. it was hard. to be truthful, i didn't know i would spend 23 years in the hospital. i want it to look exactly like her. everything here is about mrs oliver. at the end of the day, everything connects. and it comes down to a point. mrs oliver is the point. because this is going to touch her soul, to see herself ina painting. i really just want to try to pull her story out of this. hello. hi. how are you? that's important for me in the making of the portrait, is to just know how she feels about this, know how she feels about the life that she lived here. i just want you to try on tonight... yes. is this one? i used to do long hours. i used to work 7:00 in the morning till 8:00 in the evening. i've got five girls and three boys. i yeah. in then night when i go in to work, i kiss them | and say good night. and in the morning, sometimes if they're on holiday, _ they don't wake up so early. so before they wake up, like i started sometime, they don't realize that i go to work. they've always been very good l to me and the country has been good to me as well because allowed me to have a job i that i can get and look| after the children. because it's not every year| you work, you can get a job to fit in with the family, like the children. - but some of the patient then was, you know, prejudice. this girl came up and she said, "oh, i don't want your tea." and i always say, "all right, then." "you go. "if you don't want it, you go. "you lose weight." when i'm going out, she come back and she said, "are you here tomorrow morning?" and i said, "yes, i'm here tomorrow morning." okay. you know, but ijust laugh it off and walk away from, you know, it didn't... i didn't think nothing about them, you know, because, you know, they're not as sensible as me. so therefore, ijust leave them alone. how does she feel about this commission? how does she feel about her relationship to her own identity and to bring a deeper meaning into this? for me, just through her words and not my own. i'm proud of myself to, you know, to be so faithful to the nhs and the ward that i work because i work hard on that ward. all right. i think we're good. my father left us. in 1947, probably. he went to america. his job that he was doing - probably wasn't making enough money to look after the family. you leave jamaica for there was no work and a crowded house. yeah. jamaica was a crowded house. when you leaving your own country, you always feel not too great to leave it because you are leaving your family and all your friends. and that's how things goes. part of life. it was quite normal. it wasn't unusual. you know, this is a i result of our history. historically, slavery provided work, in a sense that - you were working. however, when slavery ended, then the, you know, _ the colonial period - was one where men walked about looking for work. you don't know what you're going to make until you make it. i guess it'sjust, between now and the finish line, it'sjust attempts, you know, knowing that there's going to be a struggle. glasses off. knowing it's a process of not giving up. and that's that's what that's that's what would take me there. same as last time, i guess, i'll do five minute sketches. my challenge is to make something that big john feels is familiar, resembles him. appreciated by himself and whoever he deems important to see it as well. he's a role model, so, you know, let's try and put him in a position of being that role model. i noticed that he's in a lot of, like, photographs from back in the day. so he was, i don't know, to me, he's almost like this, like handsome pin up kind of character. there's a certain generation who, if it wasn't for the way they carried themselves, the way they survived, then, you know, we might not be here with such strength. there was a pride, able to stand our ground. so, yeah, that's what someone ofjohn�*s age and energy represents to me. my work is about investigation and rediscovery. for a kid who i was at school, who loved reading stories, but never felt reflected by them, any opportunity to build on that, to share that, grow that... that's my take. i'm here to go to alfred's house and meet him for the first time, introduce myself and get to know him a little bit so that it can inform what sort of painting i produce for him. and get photos. because i am a realist painter and i work from photos predominantly, so it's all about the photo. the better the photo, the better the painting will be. hello. nice to meet you. i've got really cold hands. just so you know. i want to capture the true essence of alfred. just like the kind of normal man that he is. i think a lot of paintings can add a level of sort of pomp, which i'm not about. ijust want to capture something realistic and raw and honest. i'm going to do a hyper detailed portrait for you. so the more the camera captures, the better. i do know a little bit about alfred already because i did some research and it looks like he came from jamaica to england on the windrush and he joined the raf. my granddad was recruited for the raf in 1958 and i said, like, "did you enjoy it?" he was like, "not really." what about you ? he came at the wrong time. when i came here, i mean, the war was still on. the best thing was get to know where you were, get to know the people and... keep your nose clean. keep your nose clean? don't get involved with anything. what do you feel is the key aspect of who you are and what you want represented in the painting? hmm. really, it's up to you. sometimes you can have really serious portraits, but you've got such a great laugh, i feel like i want to capture some of the, some of the candid nature of your personality. really. yeah. a lot of memories go back into good reggae music. a lot of good memories, yep. all the teaching of english, everything you did in jamaica was english. how else do you teach anybody? it has to be like that, i you know what i mean? british guyana. one of my first experience says about britain was when, injamaica, you're taught many, many songs. that's part of education. you sang a lot in schools. one day i went home and my aunts said, "you know, what did you do "at school today, boy?" and i said, "we sang songs." and she said, "which one? "could you sing us one?" and i said, "yeah." and i sang my love is like a red, red rose. and my aunts went silent. and then they said, "why are they teaching you to sing these dirty songs for when you're just a boy?" the english history book was about two and a half inches thick. the jamaican one was about a quarter inch, so ijust didn't like it. it was a big taboo to me, english history. i would not learn it. after high school, you'll be working for the government. or as time went by and it became obvious that another thing you could do was to leave guyana and come to the mother country. the mother country. the term was used often, you know, during your education. so, most people of the windrush generation, like myself, were not formally educated to, you know, because they didn't go to private schools or posh schools. but we knew — or we were told — a lot about britain. why is this photograph so important to you? i because... ..it�*s in perhaps a small way, help to break down the barriers. hm. with figures like him, we see their accomplishments and they hide a lot of the scars. and i think for me, i'm interested in where the discomfort lies and what he might might be keeping beneath the surface and how we can bring that into a richer understanding of who he is. hello. we've seen a change in the weather over the last couple of days, a change to something drier, brighter and warmer. and we're going to stick with warm and indeed quite humid conditions over the next couple of days. but on friday, it will turn windy, and some heavy thundery rain will arrive. thursday, though, is going to be quite a quiet day of weather. there'll be some areas of low cloud and mist first thing, tending to lift and clear, and then actually some lengthy spells of sunshine with just the small chance of catching a shower. a bit more of a breeze, though, and with that breeze coming from the east, where you're exposed to it along north sea coasts, temperatures may only get to between 17—20 celsius, but with some shelter from the breeze, parts of western scotland, the north coast of northern ireland up to 22—23 celsius, maybe 26 celsius for the west coast of wales and 27 celsius for parts of central southern england. now as we head through thursday night, we will see again some areas of low cloud developing. the winds will start to pick up across western parts, and we will see a few showers and thunderstorms just starting to break out. temperatures 12—16 celsius. as we get into friday, it is going to turn really quite windy around western coasts as this frontal system starts to squeeze its way in. the white line squashing together, that shows that we will have some quite strong winds. in fact, gusts potentially of 50 to possibly 60mph in exposed parts of northwest wales. one band of heavy thundery rain pushing north eastwards, then a dryer gap, and then some more general heavy rain getting into the southwest later in the day. depending on how quickly the rain arrives, it could again be very warm indeed, and it will certainly be very humid. now, friday night looks really wet as this frontal system drives its way northwards and eastwards, some heavy and thundery bursts of rain. close to the centre of this area of low pressure on saturday, we will also see some showers, particularly across northern ireland, western scotland, maybe some for western fringes of england and wales. further south and east, not as many showers. in fact, it should be largely dry, and, again, quite warm. temperatures up to around 25 celsius in the southeast corner, but 21 celsius for glasgow, 22 celsius in belfast. still mostly dry and fairly warm on sunday, just a few showers around. and then into the start of next week, towards the south of the uk, temperatures could climb a little further. live from washington, this is bbc news. ukraine's new black sea humanitarian corridor is tested as russia responds with attacks on the country's grain depots. the family of us soldier travis king speaks about his detainment in north korea. plus — us appeals court rules to restrict access to abortion pill, mifepristone — setting up another supreme court battle. hello. i'm caitriona perry. you are very welcome. we begin in ukraine, where the country's newly announced humanitarian corridor, allowing ships to pass through the black sea, is being put to the test for the first time. a hong kong—flagged merchant ship, carrying more than 30,000 tonnes of cargo and food, successfully set sail on wednesday. the ship was just one of an estimated 60 commercial vessels trapped in ukrainian ports since the start of the war. this new corridor is meant to help free those ships. ukrainian president volodymyr zelensky called the ship's movements a "important step", even as kyiv reported a russian air strike damaged a grain storage facility in reni. our ukraine correspondent james waterhouse has the latest from kyiv. there are also interesting developments at sea where since the collapse of a major agreement last month that allowed ukraine to export grain through an agreed route through the black sea, it then announces

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