The Radical

Storyline

This beautiful short, commissioned by UCLan’s Creative Innovation Zone, is an intricate hand-drawn journey through the life of a local activist, George Dewhurst. An ordinary working man from Blackburn, George was charged with High Treason, shortly after The Peterloo Massacre in August 1819, for speaking at a gathering of workers in Burnley. Narrated by one of George's descendants, 8-year-old Monty Speed, this beautiful animated montage depicts events in George's life in the year 1819, following a quest by descendants to uncover his grave and raise awareness of his story.