John Simmit wants you to know how entertaining Rush is. Its alliterative subtitle – A Joyous Jamaican Journey – would seem to back him up. Simmit works primarily as a comic (although you might know him best as Dipsy, the coolest of the Teletubbies) and he knows all about giving an audience a good time. “I'm a stand-up comedian first and foremost so there's a light touch,” he says. “Lots of people keep coming back to see the show. If I'm being reductive, it’s hits, history and humour. It’s a fun musical.”

There is every reason to believe him, but it is tricky talking about Rush, which plays for one night only at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre tonight, without getting serious. Yes, it is a feelgood celebration of ska, rock steady, calypso, gospel, lovers rock, dancehall and reggae. And yes, it features upbeat favourites by Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Cliff and Bob Marley.

But the focus of the show, which has been touring on and off since 2019 and now has its sights set on Wembley Arena in the autumn, is the generation whose arrival in the UK began with the HMT Empire Windrush 75 years ago. These were the people invited to the UK from Caribbean countries between 1948 and 1971 and collectively known as the Windrush generation, who found themselves demonised in recent years by a government determined to appear tough on immigration.

Janice Williamson and band in Rush: A Joyful Jamaican Journey

Five years ago it emerged that many had been wrongly deported because the Home Office had not kept records of those given permission to stay and had also destroyed Windrush landing cards. Prime Minister Theresa May, who in 2012 cultivated a “hostile environment” for undocumented migrants, was forced to apologise and introduce a compensation scheme, which itself was beset by delays and claims of unfair judgments.

All the same, Rush: A Joyous Jamaican Journey aims to be a celebratory show – and with songs such as My Boy Lollipop, The Israelites, Cherry Oh Baby and One Love, how could it not be? The set list takes us on a potted history of pop, reminding us of the roots of many of our favourite tunes. “We talk about ska,” says Simmit, pronouncing the word with a flat “a” and explaining it acquired its more common pronunciation – to sound like “scar” – when it was imported to the UK. “This was generations of British white kids in the 1970s having grown up with generations of British black kids and they learn about each other’s cultures. It led to bands on the west coast of America being influenced by the 2-Tone thing. It’s a worldwide phenomenon. The rapper and the MC was a Jamaican construct before anywhere else. Hip hop directly came out of reggae. The creativity and curiosity of Jamaican culture has led to so many things that people take for granted."

But behind the upbeat vibes, Rush is also about injustice. “The government decided to target citizens who had committed no crime with hostility,” says Simmit. “Caribbean migrants, who were here legally, were suddenly told to prove they were here legally. It’s hard to state how egregious that is.”

The comedian argues there is no such thing as black history or white history, only history. The Windrush generation is part of everyone’s past and it is the responsibility of all of us not to forget. “This country and other countries seem to have a denial about the negative bits of their history,” he says. “We say, ‘Own it!’ It's everyone's history.”

Rush promises the joyous sounds of Jamaica

At a time of anxiety over immigration, for example, it is crucial to remember that the Caribbean residents came here at Britain’s request. “My parents' generation were invited here to rebuild the country, so it's no coincidence that it's the 75th anniversary of Windrush and it's the 75th anniversary of the NHS,” says Simmit, whose parents arrived in the UK in 1962 and had saved enough for a mortgage by 1968. “You're amazed about how much people don't know or have forgotten about their recent history. Look how short people's memories are. You invite people over at the end of the Forties and by 2010 you're saying, ‘Prove you have a right to be here’.” Although Rush: A Joyous Jamaican Journey was not designed to be topical, it has become so in this year's 75th anniversary of the arrival of the first 492 immigrants. Recently opened at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh is Windrush: Portraits Of A Pioneering Generation, a collection of ten paintings commissioned by King Charles to commemorate those who came to rebuild the UK after the second world war.

In London, Lenny Henry has just completed a five-star run in his debut play, August In England, about a man wrongfully detained because of the Home Office’s inadequate paperwork after living here for 52 years. It followed plays including Helen Edmundson’s Small Island at London’s National Theatre that have told similar stories.

Simmit acknowledges that behind the entertainment, this is a story that won't go away. The show trots through 400 years of history in the first half and deals with the last 50 years in the second. “It’s become more timely,” he says. “There's new stuff I add to the end of the show all the time.”

Still keen to stress the positive, he adds: “The show is wry and humorous, but it's pointing out how quirky we are as a country. It's about our collective eccentricity.”

Rush: A Joyous Jamaican Journey, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh, 8 July. Windrush: Windrush: Portraits Of A Pioneering Generation, Palace of Holyrood House, until 18 September

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John Simmit on Rush: A Joyous Jamaican Journey and the Windrush anniversary

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