Noughts and Crosses episode 1

[shallowness]

To begin with my baggage. I’m the wrong age to have read the book/s this is adapted from. The Beeb have been advertising it heavily ‘It’s World Book Day, watch this adaptation of a Very Important and Timely Book’ with a hint of And Find Out How Woke You Aren’t. Also star-crossed lovers isn’t my thing, especially the older I get. And these days, I could do with escapism (I’m still watching Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries.)

But I watched it,didn’t I? The opening was involving and that continued throughout. Now, maybe once I’d clocked Blackman had turned ‘Britain’ (minor grumble, the British Isles, surely) into apartheid South Africa, reversing the skin colour, did that let me off my white privilege hook a little? I also thought she was doing interesting things as a woman writing about masculinity, because there was so much machismo thrusting itself around and Not Helping.

You can tell it was adapted from a YA novel, apart from the age of the leads, some stuff seemed very broad brush. But the production design and costumes etc people had worked hard to build this alt!world (if following in Black Panther footsteps). Still, for instance, the African Union seemed very monocultural, with no tension between tribes, the only geopolitical issue seeming to be between this colony and the AU – but if Europe is colonised Africa., wouldn’t other colonies have that idea? And while it’s dramatically central to focus on the Home Secretary’s family and his servant’s, the POVs of people from other strata, like the irate doctor are interesting.

But the two leads were very engaging (Sephie’s earrings were magnificent and it was a Dress). The childhood friends dimension warmed me to them. Callum feels like the most complex character, driven by all kinds of impulses and influences and having to control them. Of course seeing privilege and abuse with the roles reversed is powefrul – the little vignette with the liberal teacher/lecturer uttering the ‘I have X friends’ lines struck me as id the subtle, myriad ways that Seffie’s privilege showed in her assumptions about what was safe, what was normal. And even her name, she’s the member of the elite who have claimed the Greek classic names. Meanwhile, the African influence could be seen in even white men’s hairstyles, and Callum and his mother’s pleness was striking.

The way Sephie and Callum’s relationship developed was a bit of a clichéfest. When she threw stones at his window I literally groaned, (and he played Juliet to her Romeo). Sephie’s consciousness raising was a bit clumsy too. Granted, you do trust what your friends say, especially when they were eyewitnesses, but that alone being the basis of her questioning the media? I couldn’t understand why she didn’t see the viral video Jude showed – are the internets that separated? Until, of course, she went to the hospital vigil and experienced her father’s interpretation of the PM’s orders for herself.

Some of the sub-sub plots seem interesting – who’s the guy Meggie and the Home Sec were talking about? I’m wondering whether Callum or Jude is the elder. Meggie’s relationship with the women of the family fel more like it was from the mid-twentieth century South of the US than my South African metaphor. But I felt less preached at than I feared even if I don’t know how it will hold up for the rest of its run. And reading reviews, I realise that there are a few things that I missed thanks to deteriorating vision, e.g. that it was filmed mainly in South Africa, which explains the buildings, and my vague realisation that it was awfully sunny.