Hawke heads up this dramatisation of the crusade of the anti-slavery soldiers credited with instigating the American civil war. Plus: The Repair Shop. Here’s what to watch this evening
Based on James McBride’s 2013 novel of the same name, Ethan Hawke stars as the abolitionist John Brown, leader of a crew of anti-slavery soldiers who ultimately instigated the American civil war with their 1859 raid on an army depot in West Virginia. We open with a double bill focusing on a fictional young slave, Henry Shackleford (Joshua Caleb Johnson), who is freed by Brown, after initially mistaking him for a girl, then swiftly initiated into Brown’s violent world of abolition by any means necessary. Ammar Kalia