Cy Grant Cy Grant ( 8 November 1919 – 13 February 2010 ) was a Guyanese actor , musician , writer and poet . In the 1950s , he became the first black person to be featured regularly on television in the United Kingdom , mostly due to his appearances on the BBC current affairs show " Tonight " . Following service in the Royal Air Force during the Second World War , Grant worked as an actor and singer , before establishing the Drum Arts Centre in the 1970s . In the 1980s , he was appointed director of Concord Multicultural Festivals . A published poet and author of several books , including his 2007 memoir " Blackness and the Dreaming Soul " , Grant was made an Honorary Fellow of Roehampton University in 1997 , and a member of the Scientific and Medical Network in 2001 . In 2008 , he assisted in the founding of an online archive to trace and commemorate Caribbean airmen of the Second World War . A father of four children , Grant lived with his wife , Dorith , in Highgate , London . Early life . Grant was born in the village of Beterverwagting , Demerara , British Guiana ( modern - day Guyana ) , one of seven children in a close - knit middle - class family . His father was a Moravian minister and his mother a music teacher originally from Antigua . At the age of 11 , he moved with his family to New Amsterdam , Berbice . After leaving high school , Grant worked as a clerk in the office of a stipendiary magistrate but was unable to study law overseas due to a lack of funds . Military service . In 1941 , Grant joined the Royal Air Force , which had extended recruitment to non - white candidates following heavy losses in the early years of the Second World War . One of approximately 500 young men recruited from the Caribbean as aircrew , he was commissioned as an officer after training in England as a navigator . He joined 103 Squadron , based at RAF Elsham Wolds in Lincolnshire , becoming one of a seven - man crew of a Lancaster Bomber . In 1943 , on his third mission , Flight Lieutenant Grant was shot down over the Netherlands during the Battle of the Ruhr . He parachuted to safety into a field but was captured by German forces and imprisoned in Stalag Luft III camp , east of Berlin . He was liberated by the Allied Forces in 1945 . In 2007 , Grant participated in the filming of the documentary " Into the Wind " ( 2011 ) , in which he discusses his experiences as an RAF navigator . Showbusiness career . After the war , Grant decided to pursue his original ambition to study law , perceiving it as a means to challenge racism and social injustice . He became a member of the Middle Temple in London and qualified as a barrister in 1950 . However , despite his distinguished war record and legal qualifications , he was unable to find work at the Bar and decided to take up acting . Aside from earning a living , he saw acting as a way to improve his diction in preparation for when he finally entered Chambers . Grant ' s first acting role was for a Moss Empires tour in which he starred in a play titled " 13 Death St . , Harlem " . His career received a boost after he successfully auditioned for Laurence Olivier and his Festival of Britain Company , which led to appearances at the St . James Theatre in London and the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York . Aware of the short supply of roles for black actors , Grant decided to increase his earning potential by becoming a singer , having learnt to sing and play the guitar during his childhood in Guiana . This proved to be a successful undertaking and Grant soon appeared in revues and cabaret venues such as Esmeralda ' s Barn , singing Caribbean and other folk song s , as well as on BBC radio ( The Third Programme and the Overseas Service ) and in his own television series , " For Members Only " ( broadcast on Associated Television ) . In 1956 , Grant appeared alongside Nadia Cattouse and Errol John in the BBC TV drama " Man From The Sun " , whose characters are mostly Caribbean immigrants , and starred in the World War II film " Sea Wife " ( 1957 ) , with Richard Burton and Joan Collins . The following year , Grant was asked to feature in the BBC ' s daily topical programme , " Tonight " , to " sing " the news in the form of a " Topical Calypso " ( a pun on " tropical " ) . With journalist Bernard Levin providing the words , Grant strung them together . " Tonight " was popular and made Grant , the first black person to appear regularly on British television , a well - known public figure . However , not wanting to become typecast , he stepped down from this position after two and a half years . His acting career continued apace and later in 1957 he appeared in " Home of the Brave " , an award - winning TV drama by Arthur Laurents , and travelled the following year to Jamaica for the filming of " Calypso " , in which he played the romantic lead . Grant ' s general frustration with the lack of good roles for black actors was briefly tempered in 1965 when he played the lead in " Othello " at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester , a role for which white actors at the time routinely " blacked up " . Between 1967 and 1968 he also voiced the character of Lieutenant Green in Gerry Anderson ' s " Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons " . A brief return to the Bar in 1972 reflected Grant ' s disenchantment with show business as well as his growing politicisation . After six months at a Chambers in the Middle Temple , he decided that he no longer had any passion for law and resolved to challenge discrimination through the arts . Music career . Grant performed Caribbean calypso and folk song s in many countries , at venues including Esmeralda ' s Barn in London ( 1950s ) , the New Stanley Hotel , Nairobi ( 1973 ) , Bricktops , Rome ( 1956 ) , and for the GTV 9 station in Melbourne , Australia . In addition , he entertained British armed forces in Cyprus , the Maldives , Singapore and Libya . His concert appearances include the Kongresshalle of the Deutsches Museum in Munich ( 1963 ) and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London ( 1971 ) . In 1989 , he helped to organise the " One Love Africa , Save The Children International Music Festival " in Zimbabwe . Grant recorded five LPs . His album , " Cool Folk " ( World Record Club , 1964 ) – featuring " Where Have All the Flowers Gone ? " , " Yellow Bird " , " O Pato " , " Blowin ' in the Wind " , " Work Song " , and " Every Night When the Sun Goes Down " – is a collector ' s item . Other LPs include " Cy Grant " ( Transatlantic Records ) , " Cy & I " ( World Record Club ) , " Ballads , Birds & Blues " , ( Reality Records ) and " Cy Grant Sings " ( Donegall Records ) . Two of Grant ' s singles , " King Cricket " and " The Constantine Calypso " , recorded in 1966 for Pye Records , celebrate the lives of West Indian cricketers Garfield Sobers and Learie Constantine . The songs were featured in the 2009 BBC Two TV documentary " Empire of Cricket " . Grant had extensive involvement in British radio broadcasting . The BBC Sound Archive contains more than 90 entries for his radio work , dating from 1954 to 1997 . These include a series of six meditations based on 24 of the 81 chapters of the " Tao te Ching " for the BBC World Service , " The Way of the Tao " ( 1980 ) ; " The Calypso Chronicles " , six programmes for BBC Radio 2 ( 1994 ) ; " Panning for Gold " , two programmes for Radio 2 ; " Amazing Grace " , Radio 2 ; and " Day Light Come " and " Wild Blue " , both for BBC Radio 4 . Grant discussed his experiences of being among the first generation of Afro - Caribbean actors in Britain in " TV ' s Black Pioneers " , broadcast on BBC Four in June 2007 , and " Black Screen Britain , Part 1 : Ambassadors for the Race " , broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2009 . Activism . In collaboration with Zimbabwe an John Mapondera , in 1974 Grant set up the Drum Arts Centre in London to provide a springboard for black artistic talent . Considered a landmark in the development of black theatre , among its highlights was a series of workshops held in 1975 at Morley College by Steve Carter of the New York Negro Ensemble Company . This led to a production of Mustapha Matura ' s " Bread " at the Young Vic and workshops with the Royal National Theatre . In 1977 , Ola Rotimi produced a Nigerian adaptation of Sophocles ' " Oedipus Rex " , titled " The Gods Are Not To Blame " , at the Greenwich Theatre and the Jackson ' s Lane Community Centre ; meanwhile , " The Swamp Dwellers " by Wole Soyinka was produced at the Commonwealth Institute Theatre . The Drum Arts Centre also premiered " Sweet Talk " by Michael Abbensetts at the Institute of Contemporary Arts ( ICA ) in 1975 . Among the exhibitions it mounted was " Behind the Mask : Afro - Caribbean Poets and Playwrights in Words and Pictures " at the Commonwealth Institute and the National Theatre in 1979 . Grant stood down as chair of the Drum Arts Centre in 1978 following internal disagreements , giving him the opportunity to concentrate on a one - man show adapted from Aimé Césaire ' s epic poem " Cahier d ' un retour au pays natal " ( " Notebook of a Return to My Native Land " ) . A critique of European colonialism and values , Grant cited it as a major influence on his thought . After a platform performance at the National Theatre and a two - week production at the Theatre Upstairs , Royal Court Theatre , Grant embarked on a two - year national tour in 1977 . In 1981 , Grant became director of Concord Multicultural Festivals , which in the course of the four years staged 22 multicultural festivals in cities in England and Wales , starting in Nottingham . These were followed by two national festivals in Devon ( 1986 ) and Gloucestershire ( 1987 ) . Both lasted several months and involved a vast range of local , national and international artistes , as well as workshops , in an attempt to celebrate the cultural diversity of modern - day Britain . Caribbean Aircrew Archive . Launched in 2006 , the Caribbean Aircrew Archive is a permanent record of West Indian volunteers who served in the RAF but whose contribution has since been overlooked . It is the collaboration of Grant and Hans Klootwijk , author of " Lancaster W4827 : Failed to Return " , which recounts the fate of Grant and his fellow airmen after their plane was shot down over the Netherlands in 1943 . The book is based on research carried out by Klootwijk ' s father , Joost Klootwijk , who was 11 when the bomber crashed into a farmhouse in his village . With regular updates by surviving aircrew and relatives , as well as by military historians , the online archive has established that West Indians in the RAF numbered roughly 440 and that at least 70 were commissioned and 103 decorated .