DARCUS HOWE, ex-Black Panther, son of an Anglican priest, Britain’s leading black radical commentator. He broke with Establishment at age 19, left Trinidad for London, entered the Middle Temple, swapped it for journalism. Uncle and mentor, radical intellectual C.L.R. James, inspired Darcus to combine writing with political activism. A brief spell as assistant editor on the Trinidad trade union paper The Vanguard was followed as editor of British magazine Race Today. A Mangrove Nine trialist, Darcus was acquitted of riot and affray. He organised the 20,000-strong Black People’s March of 1981, claiming official neglect and inefficient policing of the investigation of the New Cross fire in which 14 black teenagers died.

His UK broadcasting career launched in 1982 on Channel 4’s Black on Black. He produced and presented C4’s Bandung File, pulling no punches in interviews with Rajiv Ghandi and Robert Mugabe. In 1992, Darcus became The Devil’s Advocate on C4’s cult studio debate show, honing his inimitable polemical style. He scribes a weekly column in The New Statesman.