Tracy-Ann Oberman, Tamzin Outhwaite, Eddie Marsan and more star in new BBC drama about Jewish London

Last month we held the first ever JR Book Club, at which we discussed Jo Bloom’s debut novel, Ridley Road. Originally published in 2015, the drama about London’s Jewish East End was picked up by BBC One earlier this year for a four-part TV adaptation and the cast has just been announced.

The award-winning line-up features Rory Kinnear, Tamzin Outhwaite, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Eddie Marsan, Samantha Spiro, Rita Tushingham, Danny Hatchard, Aggi O’Casey and Tom Varey.

Bloom was inspired to write Ridley Road after meeting a member of the 62 Group, a band of Jewish men who fought fascism on the streets of London in the early 1960s. The story is told from the perspective of a 20-year-old Jewish hairdresser from Manchester, Vivien Epstein (played by O’Casey), who moves to the East End to start a new life after the death of her father.

After falling in love with a member of the 62 Group, she rejects her former middle-class comforts and joins the fight against fascism, risking everything for her beliefs and for the man she loves.

“A young hairdresser from Manchester makes an unlikely hero,” said screenwriter Sarah Solemani in a press statement, “but in these unprecedented times, it is the unlikely heroes whose stories are now worth telling.

“Britain's relationship with fascism is closer and more alive than we like to think. Fortunately, so too is our rich heritage of beating it. I’m honoured to bring the story of Ridley Road to the BBC.”

By Danielle Goldstein

The next JR Book Club will be on The Last Kings of Shanghai with Jonathan Kaufman. Visit our events page for further details.