The Louis Lester Band is a group created by writer/director Stephen Poliakoff, with music by composer Adrian Johnston, specifically for the BBC2 television miniseries Dancing on the Edge, to depict a 1930s-era swing band. The series was later re-broadcast on Showtime. Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as the pianist and bandleader Lester with a host of black and white musicians. The time period is significant in England because black musicians regularly entertained high-society white audiences (including the royal family) as jazz caught on in England. The music played by the group in the series more readily reflects the early-'40s sounds of Duke Ellington's and Les Brown's bands than it does the kinetic, solo-centric sounds of the more raucous jazz age of the late '20s and early 30s. ~ Thom Jurek