AN ACTOR, best known for his role in C4’s Peep Show, is coming to York to tell the story of the first person of African Heritage to vote in Britain.

Actor and author Paterson Joseph will be bringing Sancho and Me to York Theatre Royal on November 14 – a play which tells the story of his recent novel The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho.

Sancho and Me tells the story of Charles Ignatius Sancho - the first man of African Heritage to vote in Britain. After being born on a slave ship on the Atlantic Ocean in 1729, he went on become a writer, composer, shopkeeper and respected ‘man of letters’ in 18th century London.

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In partnership with co-creator and musical director Ben Park, Paterson will explore ideas of belonging, language, education, slavery, commerce, violence, politics, music, love and the way these stories crossover with his own experiences growing up Black and British.

Paterson said: “Ignatius Sancho had a most extraordinary life. Born of enslaved African parents, he rose to a position of great influence in British society. A polymath with a talent for music, his vote in 1774 and 1780 made him the first person of African descent to vote in a British Parliamentary election.'

The event posterThe event poster (Image: Provided) "I first came across Charles Ignatius Sancho in 1999. Born and raised in London, by my mid-thirties I had no idea there were thousands of Black Britons in the UK long before the famous 'Windrush Generation' who arrived in the 1940s/50s and 60s. I cannot overstate the powerful sense of belonging this knowledge brought me.

“My desire is to spread that sense of rootedness through spreading the word far and wide: Britain has always been a multi-ethnic country and Black People have been a major part of that story."

Paterson Joseph’s novel The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho won the RSL Christopher Bland Prize and The Historical Writer’s Association Debut Novel Prize in 2023.

Tickets are available here.