Race attacks on restaurateur in Yeovil from 1990s to be documented

An award-winning restaurateur has spoken movingly about the support he received from the late Lord Paddy Ashdown during years of racist attacks in his early career.

Luthfur Rahman, 51, started in the restaurant business in 1994 in Yeovil, where his Liberal Democrat colleague was an MP.

Despite as many as 30 attacks on his first location, including one with a petrol bomb, he said Lord Ashdown’s involvement, along with his own self-confidence, had enabled him to persevere.

“I knew it was an incredible story,” says Owen Franklin, director of the Bristol Film Festival, who has written a screenplay about the two men and their shared determination to reduce racial tensions in Yeovil in the 1990s.

“There were many attacks and most of them were intended to seriously injure or kill me,” Rahman told BBC Radio Bristol.

“There were incidents involving knives, baseball bats and even a petrol bomb,” he added.

“Then in 1999, I ended up in the hospital for over three months where six inches of my intestine was cut away because of all the stress and physical battles that were affecting my body.

“That was one of the worst moments of my life, where I thought that was it, but the faith, passion and self-confidence kept me going,” he added.

“When I opened a restaurant in Yeovil I met a lot of Navy people from Yeovilton, it was interesting,” he said.

He struck up a friendship with Lord Ashdown, himself a former Royal Marine officer, and MP for Yeovil from 1983 to 2001.

“He became close to me and together we did things to combat ignorant thinking. It took a few years, but eventually I got people to understand.

“Through the hospitality industry, you do it with your love, your care and your passion for food,” he added.

Lord Ashdown’s widow, Jane, said: ‘There was a huge amount of racial hatred in Yeovil at the time.

“When Paddy heard that Luthfur had been beaten up and all his windows had been smashed, he went on night patrol and was himself threatened with a knife to his throat.”

Ms Ashdown said her husband then organized specialist security protection for Mr Rahman, his family and colleagues.

Early in his career, Mr Rahman moved from Bethnal Green in London to Yeovil, where he founded his first restaurant, Viceroy.

His family’s Bengali heritage was reflected in his menus and culture of hard work.

“It was an adventure at the time to work in a restaurant for British Bangladeshi youth, the second or third generation.”

Mr Rahman’s story is now being made into a film following a chance conversation with Bristol Film Festival founder and director Owen Franklin.

“I knew it was an incredible story, a story that is not yet known,” Franklin said.

“It was exciting, shocking and really ripe for drama because it was his own lived experiences.

“The longer he spoke, the more incredible it was and the more shocking and poignant it became,” he said.

Mr Franklin said he wanted the docudrama to explore the two men’s friendship and what brought them together despite their different backgrounds.

The core of the script is the trial in which Lord Ashdown became involved in 1996 against one of the perpetrators.

Lord Ashdown was in power in the years that followed the death of black teenager Stephen Lawrence in London in 1993 and when the Race Relations Act 2000 was introduced.

“He has done a lot to help change the regulatory landscape, and to help me,” Mr Rahman said.

“Before 2000, there would be 30 to 40 people standing in front of my restaurant calling me all sorts of things. I had to call the police, but the police couldn’t do anything.

“After 2000 it became a criminal offense.

“Paddy got involved in my case and you will see in the film what he has done for other people,” he added.

Mr Rahman said he believed that the pleasure of eating and enjoying good food is often the secret to better relationships.

“At one time those guys (who attacked me) were racist to the core, maybe even went to jail, but later they became my friends – I converted them.

“It took time, but I did it with patience, talking to them and giving them my food.

“It goes through your mouth, but it touches your heart,” he explained.

Mr Rahman’s business then began to flourish and by 2006 he had six restaurants and two takeaways in Somerset and Devon.

“I have a lot of tolerance and resilience,” he said. “Those difficult times with the attacks made me stronger.”

Mr Rahman has now scaled back his business but continues to manage two restaurants in Bath and Bristol, both called the Mint Room.

When Lord Ashdown died in 2018 at the age of 77, Mr Rahman hosted a meal for 150 people in his memory.

Mrs Ashdown said: “Luthfur was a very brave man and he was very grateful to Paddy for his help and wanted to show his appreciation. It was a fantastic meal.”

Lord Ashdown himself described Mr Rahman as “dynamic and courageous” in his 2010 autobiography, A Fortunate Life.

In 2020, the Mint Room was named Britain’s best restaurant for a curry by a national newspaper.

The script for the film has been written and production is expected to begin in 2025.