At the start of March the BBC aired the first episode of their adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s critically acclaimed novel Noughts and Crosses.
Whenever anybody asks me what my favourite book is, I answer Noughts and Crosses without hesitation. I am extremely invested in entire series and world of the novel and have reread each book numerous time and enjoyed each reread. So when the news that the BBC were producing an adaptation of my fav book I was thrilled beyond words, seeing as I had missed out on watching the theatre production.
Soon my thrill turned to apprehension; were they going to ruin my favourite book of all time like so many adaptations have done before? There’s always that thought of how far from the source material will the writers and directors stray, will I even recognise what I’m watching, are they going to take away key characters and add new ones? The list goes on. I delayed watching the series for about a week as a battled with the thought of being sorely disappointed, but a friend of mine urged me to watch it saying it was enjoyable, so I did.
I took me until half way through the second episode to stop making direct comparisons between the book and the BBC drama, and although there were some changes I personally didn’t like it was indeed highly enjoyable overall.
If I’m completely honest there wasn’t a huge amount of things that I completely disliked however some of the changes made definitely irked me. Straight out the gate the I was quite disappointed with the set up of Callum and Sephy’s relationship . The growth of their relationship in the book really highlights how social prejudices and racism is often a learnt behaviour, the innocence of their friendship and their blossoming love only made everything around them more prominent and raw and consequently made the ending more tragic. Though the performance from Masali Baduza and Jack Rowan soon had me overlooking that particular detail.
There were two characters that I wasn’t particularly blown away by, the first was the added character of Lekan as Sephy’s boyfriend. I really didn’t see the point of their relationship in the grand scheme of things. Jonathan Ajayi did a brilliant job of making me dislike him until the bitter end with his blatantly racist behaviour towards Callum and all Noughts, however I feel like there was very little need for him to be Sephy’s boyfriend, it cheapened his role to that of a scorned lover, instead of a blatant racist, maniac.
The second character who I was not a big fan of was Jude McGregor. Now I believe that the Jude McGregor that Blackman wrote was an antagonist of many layers, however the Jude that Josh Dylan presented was a diluted, two dimensional version, who sort of stumbled his way through the series without the same purpose his book version had. A real shame.
With that being said I absolutely loved the transformation of London into this beautiful hub of Africanness. It really is the Africa they don’t want you to see and it was so refreshing for it just to be displayed in all it’s glory as the social norm.
From the celebration of black beauty on the billboards in the city, to numerous fashion statements made by Sephy and other characters, to the versatility of the natural hairstyles worn by each character, to the having a black female Prime Minister who was surrounded by her peers in terms of race; Noughts + Crosses was a brimming with the kind of representation that is needed more often on mainstream television.
Of course the celebration of blackness is immediately and deliberately juxtaposed by the treatment of the Noughts and of course drives home underlying issues of racism in society. Some could say the racism shown to the noughts was done with a certain level of eloquence however I would argue that is it no more eloquent than what is experienced in contemporary society (which is obviously the point).
From the micro-aggressions of Crosses pronouncing Nought’s names wrong, to having the Noughts that join Mercy Point don the same hairstyles as their Cross counterparts (and look ridiculous as they did it) it really drives home how Noughts are forced to adopt another culture in order to assimilate into the society. I’ve seen many comments on social media with people commenting about how Meggie McGregor’s hair was always in tight curls, somewhat mimicking the afro hairstyle. A direct reflection of how many black women straighten their hair in order for them to appear presentable in a professional work place.
The scene with the plaster was such a penny drop moment for me when I read the book and it’s such a shame that there wasn’t more of an emphasis on in the TV series however I was glad that it was kept it as many people would have been disappointed if it has been omitted completely.
Overall Noughts + Crosses is definitely a piece of drama that needed to produced by big organisation such as the BBC. It explores so many themes and injustices that are experience by many in the 21st century. It is quite telling that a book written in 2001 (almost two decades ago) is still so relevant today. Noughts + Crosses is by no means the solution to racism and prejudice however it continues the narrative and allows for further discussions and ultimately change.
The ending definitely leaves the door wide open for second series and a continuation of the book series. I was thrilled that Callum remained alive and thee pair stayed together as it emphasises the love story as the focal theme of the entire series. It is fairly common that films and tv programmes that explore social injustices often end on happy ending, when so often the worlds their are attempted to emulate have no such happy ending, take Get Out as a prime example. I’ve been told to take into consideration that the ending allows for a second series, however there are four more books in the series so material for a second series has already been written but we will see what happens if and when a second series will be announced. I definitely hope there is and hopefully it is an enjoyable as the first.
P.S. Stormy should not act, it’s not for him. Stick to rapping Big Mike.
Zee's Reviews 