Angellica Bell, presenter of BBC's The One Show, became emotional during a segment at the V&A East museum. She was visibly moved while viewing items from the 'The Music is Black: A British Story' exhibition, including a dress worn by Dame Shirley Bassey at the Academy Awards and clothes belonging to 1980s pop duo Mel and Kim.
Pausing before the display, Bell said: 'There are wonderful memories here for everyone, but this one is all mine. This for me gives me goosebumps. It's as if I'm in a time warp. I'm going back... The moves, their energy, and for a young black girl, having the visuals.'
Curator Jacqueline Springer asked Bell if she was crying. The presenter nodded and replied: 'It's making me emotional. Love it.' The pair also examined a Banksy-designed stab vest worn by Stormzy at Glastonbury in 2019.
Springer commented on the vest: 'The fact that we're standing in front of a stab vest, there's something deeply unsettling about this... there is a possibility that we have become desensitised to the ubiquity of violence and who the victims of knife crime are.'
Bell described the exhibition as bringing together 125 years of black music history through artefacts, instruments, photography, and fashion. Springer added: 'It's just being able to show so clearly how there's a jigsaw, there's a vertebra that connects us all.'
