Asian Voices: Shiv Grewal talks about A British Subject

ASIAN VOICES: SHIV GREWAL

Actor Shiv Grewal, appearing in A British Subject (currently at the Arts Theatre to Nov 26 2011), talks to Suman Bhuchar. The play, written by Nichola McAuliffe, based on research done by her journalist husband Don Mackay, deals with the case of Mirza Tahir Hussain — who following the death of a taxi driver shortly after his arrival in Pakistan in 1988 was arrested, tried and condemned to death, subsequently spending 18 years on death row, the Pakistani authorities unmoved by his status as a British subject.

“The cell was eight foot by ten, with ten other men, just bare bars, a hole in the middle for people to go to the toilet, and each prisoner had a small blue bucket and that’s all they had. He spent 18 years there.”