The Big Payback is a new comedy drama written by Sir Lenny Henry.

While taking part in a celebrity ancestry TV show, Jack Braddock, a white actor in a globally popular TV hospital drama series, discovers that he is descended from a brutal 18th century plantation manager called Lachlan Braddock who was in the habit of issuing particularly vicious punishments to his enslaved workers. He also discovers that he is related to a family of Lachlan's Black British descendants.

In a high risk PR exercise, he goes to lunch with the Birmingham Braddocks: Shelton, Delyce, Amelia and Glenroy.

Sir Lenny Henry is a celebrated comedian, actor, writer, and activist. A pioneering figure in British comedy, Sir Lenny is the co-founder of Comic Relief and a committed campaigner for diversity in the media. This audio drama evolved out of a book written by Sir Lenny and long term collaborator Marcus Ryder, also called The Big Payback. 

He says, "I am delighted to have worked with Mary Peate and Jessica Dromgoole at Hooley, BBC Radio 4, and a wonderful cast led by Oliver Chris, Richard Campbell, and Roger Griffiths, who helped to make a complex issue a debate with humour, heart, and clarity.”

The accounts of the fictional Lachlan Braddock's cruelty to his enslaved workers are taken from real accounts from Jamaican plantation owners - notably Thomas Thistlewood - and from accounts written by Baptist missionary Henry Blepy.

The Big Payback is broadcast on 23rd July at 14:15 on BBC Radio 4,