Hero: Inspired by the Extraordinary Life & Times of Mr Ulric Cross

"Extraordinary" scarcely does justice to the achievements of the Trinidadian jurist and diplomat profiled in this hybrid biopic/documentary by Frances-Anne Solomon. Surviving a difficult childhood in Port of Spain, Ulric Cross (Nickolai Salcedo) became the most decorated West Indian in the RAF while serving as a bomber navigator. After the Second World War, he trained as a lawyer and was later recruited to help bring about a United States of Africa in the late 1950s. Those unfamiliar with this neglected corner of colonial history will learn much about issues that remain pertinent, as Solomon flits slickly between archive footage and dramatic reconstruction to reveal Cross's role in the push towards peaceful independence in Ghana, Congo, Cameroon and Tanzania. Yet this lesson on the clash between idealism and reality, like the segments about MI6 controller Daphne Park and Cross's nurse wife Ann (Pippa Nixon) founding a hospital, feels rather rushed. A mini-series might have been better to chronicle a life so well lived.