It’s a powerful line, and one that sums up the driving force behind the entire Small Axe series. From the Mangrove Nine to Leroy Logan, Steve McQueen’s films are shining a light on Black British stories that have never been given such a prominent platform before.

For many viewers, this episode may be their first introduction to the New Cross fire of 1981, in which 13 young Black people aged between 14 and 22 died at a house party. Initially, police believed the house had been firebombed in a racist attack – a plausible explanation at a time when racial tensions were running high in that part of south-east London and far-right group the National Front was active in the area.

Yet officers later ruled the fire had been started accidentally inside the house, prompting an outpouring of pain and frustration from the local Black community that contributed to the Brixton Uprising a few months later.

Alex Wheatle: what the latest Small Axe film can teach us about confronting the UK’s racist history