Newcomer Agnes O’Casey is making her television debut as Vivien Epstein, with her previous work being on stage productions with Irish drama school The Lir Academy.

Speaking about her casting, she said: “Sarah Solemani has blown me away with the detail, sensitivity, and complexity with which she has written Vivien. I can’t wait to bring this vital and little-known story to life”.

Ridley Road plot

Based on Jo Bloom’s novel, the story is inspired by the struggle of the 62 Group, a coalition of anti-fascists who stood up against rising neo-Nazism in post-war Britain.

Set in 1962, Ridley Road unfolds from the perspective of young Jewish woman Vivien Epstein, who moves from Manchester to East London after the death of her father.

She attempts to track down Jack Morris, a man with whom she once had an intense love affair, but with little information to go on she is unsuccessful – at first.

After bagging a job at a hair salon in Soho, Vivien becomes involved in London’s anti-fascist movement and is selected to infiltrate the National Socialist Movement (NSM), a neo-Nazi group set up by Colin Jordan.

It’s a dangerous mission that will bring her face-to-face with the leader himself as well as her lost love, Jack, with screenwriter Solemani hoping it will bring awareness to the threat of fascism in the UK today.

“Britain’s relationship with fascism is closer and more alive than we like to think,” she said in a statement. “Luckily, so is our rich heritage of fighting it.

“Jo Bloom’s gripping book revealed a darker side of sixties London and the staggering contribution the Jewish community made in the battle against racism. I am thrilled to be working with [production company] Red and the BBC to bring this little-known slice of British history to the screen.”

The BBC synopsis reads: “Ridley Road is a thriller set against the backdrop of a swinging sixties London we haven’t seen: an East End world where far right fascism is on the rise.

“When Vivien Epstein follows her lover into danger and he is caught between life and death, Vivien finds herself going undercover with the fascists, not only for him but for the sake of her country.”

Is Ridley Road based on a true story?

While the story of Ridley Road involving Vivien Epstein and lover Jack Morris is fictional, the backdrop against which it is set is very much drawn from real history.

In the 1960s, fascism was on the rise in East London – where Ridley Road is located – fuelled by the disgusting comments and actions of Colin Jordan’s National Socialist Movement.

The 62 Group was a real organisation created in response to anti-semitic attacks that had started to become more frequent, taking action in a variety of ways including planting informers within fascist groups.

The most well-known incident in the war between these groups occurred in 1962 at Trafalgar Square, where Jordan’s attempt to hold a fascist and anti-semitic rally led to a riot.