LONDON -- Footage believed to show the world's first interracial television kiss has been uncovered by the British Film Institute (BFI) -- and it was broadcast a full six years before the iconic Star Trek scene between Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura.
The rediscovered scene, which takes place between Lloyd Reckord and Elizabeth MacLennan in TV play You in Your Small Corner, was first shown on ITV in June 1962.
You in Your Small Corner, which was adapted from a play written by Barry Reckord (the brother of the actor in the scene), tells the story of a Jamaican man who has a relationship with a woman he meets in London while visiting the UK to go to university.
The footage was unearthed by programmer Marcus Prince, who discovered the scene in the BFI's National Archive while carrying out research for a discussion on "Race and Romance on Television."
A lot of people think of the Star Trek scene between Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) when they think of TV's first interracial kiss, but that one was actually broadcast in 1968 (it's credited as the first U.S. interracial TV kiss, though).
A 1964 scene from hospital soap Emergency War 10, in which John White and Joan Hooley kissed, was previously credited as the first interracial kiss to be broadcast on British TV.
"This ground-breaking TV play is such an important rediscover," said BFI Creative Director Heather Stewart in a press release sent to Mashable. "Fifty years on, diverse on-screen representation is still an urgent issue and we must continue as an industry to effect much-needed change."
The BFI's Race & Romance on TV event takes place on Nov. 24.