Hugh Quarshie thinks there's a "hardcore racist element" in British society.
Hugh Quarshie
The 66-year-old actor - who stars in the new ITV drama 'Stephen', which explores the racist attack on 18-year-old Stephen Lawrence in 1993 - thinks bigotry remains a huge problem in the UK.
Hugh - who was born in Ghana, but emigrated to the UK as a child - shared: "I’ve got a son who is now Stephen’s age and every day when he goes to college I feel that concern, which sometimes spills over into anxiety.
"With all of the knife crime in London and so on. When he was getting on a bus to go to his sixth form college, I’d just wait until he was out of sight and I’d turn around and wave. Which is not far from how things would have been the last time Neville [Lawrence] saw Stephen.
"You think, let’s hope people have learned the lesson, but the worry is there are people out there who say, ‘It was so long ago, can’t you just let it rest?’ But you have to remember these things or they could very well happen again.
"The pleasure and pride you take in your children, sometimes tiptoeing a few paces behind, is that anxiety. Especially if you are a parent of a black or mixed-race kid. You know they will be subject to more stresses and tensions growing up than white kids.
"And it’s quite clear there is a hardcore racist element, still in the 21st century."
Hugh plays Neville Lawrence, Stephen's dad, in the ITV drama, and he's thrilled with his new role.
The former 'Holby City' star told the Daily Mirror newspaper: "To be asked to be involved in a project like this, about justice delayed, it was gratifying to do something so significant rather than conventional entertainment. It’s a story that needs to be told."