Watch some preview clips of a new ITV documentary film about the creation of Britain’s first statue of a named black woman in Britain – Crimean War heroine, Mary Seacole.

The landmark statue will have a prominent position outside St Thomas’ Hospital, London, opposite the Houses of Parliament, and the process of creating it has been followed by ITV’s cameras for almost three years. The clips will be accompanied by discussion between the sculptor Martin Jennings, film director Jamie Muir and executive producer Ed Taylor.

Mary Seacole was born in Jamaica where she learnt to care for the sick and infirm from her doctress mother. She married Lord Nelson’s godson, Edwin Horatio Hamilton Seacole, who died eight years later. At 50 years of age she sought and was refused permission to join Florence Nightingale to help with the treatment of injured soldiers. Mary Seacole defied the racial prejudice she had encountered, and made her own way to the battlefields to care for the sick and wounded.

The documentary sees presenter David Harewood follow sculptor Martin Jennings as he produces his sculpture of Seacole. Discussions at this event will centre on the making of the film and the controversy that the statue has generated amongst the academic and nursing communities.

Jennings is a well-known sculptor whose works include the Betjeman statue at St Pancras Station. Taylor is an executive producer at Potato (part of ITV Studios) and former head of development at the BBC whose credits include How to Read a Church, Britain’s Secret Treasures  and Perspectives: Len Goodman on Fred Astaire.

Muir was part of the original South Bank Show team at ITV.  He has directed episodes of Simon Schama’s A History of Britain, Neil Macgregor’s Making Masterpieces, and Russia - A Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby.

Discussions will be chaired by writer and journalist Paul Blezard.

In association with ITV network.

This event lasts between 90 minutes and two hours.