“I want this show to reach people like Claire from Devon – people who are naive to these experiences. I want people to feel uncomfortable with what they are seeing. For you to see another person’s point of view, you have to go through it.”
Kiké Brimah is explaining the world behind Malorie Blackman’s hit young-adult novel series Noughts and Crosses, a race-reversed story of love and prejudice, which has now been adapted for BBC One.
Written by one of the country’s most celebrated black female authors, the books dissect the inequalities between black and white Britons by turning them on their head, and imagining a world in which black supremacy is the norm, and Europe lives in the shadow of colonial Africa (renamed “Aprica”). The first book was published two decades ago, but Brexit, Meghxit and the current political regime mean they offer a particularly prescient and vivid representation of what is going on in black people’s minds. In the books, white “noughts” have their names mispronounced, are labelled as gang members or are dismissed as “uppity”. Such is the timeliness of the show that the grime star Stormzy – a longtime fan of Blackman – also makes a cameo as a newspaper editor, Kolawale, in a role created specifically for the adaptation.
Brimah, a newcomer, plays Minerva, the unapologetically black, privileged younger sister of the “cross” protagonist Sephy (Masali Baduza), while Jack Rowan plays Sephy’s childhood friend turned love interest, Callum – a nought trying to make a positive impact on the world despite adversity. While Sephy’s family – led by Paterson Joseph as her high-powered politician father – seem to have it all, relations are strained. Meanwhile, Callum’s family is poverty-stricken, but proud. Rowan hadn’t read the book before he was cast, but it quickly made its mark on the actor, best known for roles in Peaky Blinders and the Channel 4 thriller Born to Kill. “I hadn’t noticed its impact, but, once I read it, I totally understood why it had one. To have the opportunity to work on something that was, and is, empowering to so many felt like poetry,” he says.
The six-episode series sees Sephy and Callum’s relationship grow ever more complicated as they come of age, tackling prejudice and ignorance from their families and the wider world. Like the novels, the adaptation pulls no punches when it comes to race. Blackman describes Noughts and Crosses as “her version of Romeo and Juliet” and the parallels are clear, with Sephy and Callum separated by society, but united by love.
The first episode contains a scene that particularly emphasises the gulf between them. In it, Callum sees Sephy for the first time since they were children and injures his hand on broken glass. She comes to his rescue by giving him a plaster – but it is brown rather than white. A minuscule detail in the book, on screen its power is hugely amplified.
While the plot initially focuses on the relationship between Callum and Sephy, the series also delves into racism more broadly, with the “noughts” estranged by society and targeted by the police. As far as racism is concerned, Blackman views it as an all-too-prescient tale. “Unfortunately, the facts show there is more hate crime in Britain nowadays, with people being judged on skin colour, religion or sexual orientation,” she says. “It seems as if things have improved maybe as far as access to information and knowledge on other cultures is concerned, but unfortunately some people view anyone who is different to them as something to be fearful and suspicious of, and that is a damn shame.”
Indeed, while watching the young white men targeted in the series, it is hard not to think of the many black people who have lost their lives due to racism. Here, black policemen savagely attack young white boys with their weapons, spitting the word “blanker” (a derogatory word for noughts) with venom. The police brutality ultimately leads to an innocent nought in hospital.
The series was filmed primarily in South Africa – and language, music, lighting, costume and makeup were used to represent this flipped world, be it ideals of beauty, the dominance of African cultural norms or even the gestures people use to greet each other. And – along with cinematic milestones including Black Panther, Hidden Figures and Girls Trip – it feels like an important step in the representation of black people’s experiences on screen. The party scene in the first episode in particular is black inside and out, from the African clothing to the up-tempo music, and the chants that represent a culture that is not shown on TV most of the time.
For Baduza, they were creating something “that had never been done – it was so great celebrating culture, our culture”, she says. “From the props to the costumes to the hair. Everything was so unapologetically black and African, and that was so perfect. I was happy to be a part of that. Africa was the norm on set and working like this helped me be comfortable.” For Brimah, it was “a moment … seeing so many black people in one room and we were all in positions of power and in royalty”.
For white viewers, it may prove unsettling and unusual not to see themselves reflected back as the dominant force, but it will probably prove eye-opening for audiences of all colours. “I hope it teaches people, and allows them to see people who don’t look like them,” says Rowan. “I hope it teaches someone something new about racism, and they can say: ‘I get it.’”
Noughts + Crosses starts tonight, 9pm, BBC One
