• Noughts + Crosses is based on Malorie Blackman’s award-winning novels
• It became the no. 1 show across all channels when it premiered on 5 March 2020 in Britain
• Largely shot in South Africa, with SA’s Masali Baduza in the lead role
• Also starring BAFTA winner Jack Rowan (Born to Kill, Peaky Blinders)
• 82% critics rating, Rotten Tomatoes

“Over 700 years ago, the Aprican Empire invaded Europe. Aprica colonised the continent and reached as far as Albion. Albion has been under Aprican rule ever since.”

So begins Noughts + Crosses, a controversial six-part BBC One series that has just started screening on Showmax and M-Net, with new episodes every Thursday night from 23:30.

South African Masali Baduza (Trackers) and BAFTA winner Jack Rowan (Born To Kill, Peaky Blinders) play Sephy and Callum, two star-crossed lovers in the tradition of Romeo and Juliet.

Sephy is the privileged daughter of the Home Secretary, Kamal Hadley, while Callum’s mother, Meggie, is the Hadleys’ housekeeper. While Sephy and Callum grew up together, they may as well have lived in different worlds.

Shot largely in Cape Town, the series also stars Paterson Joseph (Peep Show, The Leftovers) and South African actress Bonnie Mbuli (Invictus, Wallander) as Sephy’s parents, Kamal and Jasmine, with BAFTA nominee Helen Baxendale (Cold Feet, Emily in Friends) and Tribeca winner Ian Hart (Professor Quirrell in Harry Potter) as Callum’s parents, as well as Josh Dylan (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, The End of the F***ing World) as his brother Jude.

The alternate reality love story is based on the multi-award-winning 2001 novel by former Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman, which was included in both BBC’s list of the 100 Novels That Shaped The World and in The Guardian’s 100 Best Books of the 21st Century. Grime superstar Stormzy, who has a cameo in the series as newspaper editor Kolawale, calls the five-book series “my favourite books of all time.”

“What I wanted to do was have the black people in my story not as victims, but celebrating their own culture,” says Blackman. “I remember the first time I wore an afro at school, I was sent out of the class for being a troublemaker. It was this thing of black people being penalised for wearing our own natural hair. The celebration of African culture in myriad forms gives a different sensibility to what has been on TV before.”

“Prior to reading Malorie’s books, I had never heard of a world that existed where Africans were the ruling class,” says Baduza. “It was unique and it made me feel warm inside, to imagine a world where this could be a possibility.”

TV REVIEW: NETFLIX’s ‘QUEEN SONO’ DEBUTS!

“As a black African, I have never seen a television show that showcased our being or our ways, in a way that was given a place and was acceptable, until now,” says Mbuli. “It is quite a feeling to walk onto set and feel seen as a person, and feel like your hair and the way you wear it, or the way the people in your world wear their clothes or what they hold dear, is suddenly important and is being given a platform. It is shocking.

“Then you realise that you have spent your whole life without it, that you have never switched on a TV and seen that. That too is shocking. I sometimes walked onto set and started weeping.”

Visionary short film director Kibwe Tavares (Jonah, Robots of Brixton, Robot & Scarecrow) executive produced the series and steered the creation of its Afrocentric world, where everything has been rethought, from the language to the architecture, from beauty norms to the colour of plasters.

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In one powerful scene, Callum cuts his finger and Sephy gets him a plaster, which is too dark for his skin. For context, South Africa has only had ‘skin tone’ plasters for black people since 2015, while in the UK, Tesco has just this year released multi tone plasters – and claims to be the first supermarket there to do so.

“There are so many small moments that a lot of people wouldn’t think about, like the fact that flesh coloured plasters are not the flesh colour of anyone but white people,” says Joseph. “It is an insidious, tiny, incremental knock to you as a citizen of any country to be told what normal is in those casual ways… Working on this drama has exercised all of our minds and made us super aware of everything.”

Noughts + Crosses was the number-one show across all channels when it premiered on 5 March 2020 in Britain. The series has a 82% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Guardian hailing it as “vital viewing”, The Telegraph as a “must-see”, NME as “must-watch TV”, RadioTimes as “a series on the cusp of greatness”, and The Evening Standard as “properly incendiary.”

Of course, the glowing reviews weren’t universal: The Independent predicted “this race reversal drama will induce hernias in right wing commentators” – and they weren’t wrong. Trolls took to Twitter to denounce it as “deeply racist”, “anti-white tripe” and “race-baiting.”

Blackman was having none of it. “Btw, to those accusing me of being anti-white or stating I must hate white people to create such a story as Noughts and Crosses, I’m not even going to dignify your absurd nonsense with a response,” she tweeted. “Go take a seat waaaay over there in the cold, dark and bitter haters’ corner.”

Noughts + Crosses was shot in South Africa with mostly local crew, including award-winning cinematographers Jamie Ramsay and Giulio Biccari, Emmy-nominated casting director Christa Schamberger, costume designer Dihantus Engelbrecht, hair and makeup designer Nadine Prigge, and production designer Shane Bunce.

The African links don’t stop there either – Screen International 2018 Star of Tomorrow Koby Adom, born in the Ivory Coast and raised in Ghana, is one of the two directors, while the soundtrack includes Ghana’s Kiki Gyan and Ebo Taylor; Mali’s Salif Keita; and South African artists Bongeziwe Mabandla, Mlindo The Vocalist, and Umlilo.

As Stormzy put it on Twitter, “This is 100% groundbreaking… I haven’t seen nothing like it on British telly ever.”

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Probably the one single silver-lining amid calls for social distancing to mitigate the potential spread of the Coronavirus is binge watching Netflix’s very first African produced web series Queen Sono.

It is unlike anything we’ve seen come out of the Mzansi’s film and television production houses. From the world-class visuals of the vibrant colours captured on the screen to the perfect choreography in the stunts during action sequences.

If you go down memory lane, without throwing any shade, Queen Sono is on a league of its own. The producers did away with the recycled  storyline of rags to riches tales of the African child or the criminal element that viewers just can’t help but fall in love with.

Instead, Pearl Thusi is positioned as the protagonist on this series, a refreshing sight reinforcing the strength of women in society. The creator, Kagiso Lediga seemingly took a conscious decision to carry the underlying tone of the movie when casting the supporting acts in the movie.

Queen Sono is a great exploration of the African landscape, both literally and figuratively. Even if you ignore the transgeographical flow of the series, Lediga made a concerted effort capture a linguistic collage of Northern and Southern tongues in the continent.

The spy thriller follows the escapades of a no-nonsense South African agent that deals with her psychological issues through fist-fighting and rebellion to authority. It seems like the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. She is the daughter of revolutionary fighter Safiya Sono, who was assassinated during the apartheid era and she uses her position to find who the culprit is.

RELATED: Apple Music Debuts Official Queen Sono Tracklist

Aiding Sono in her quest to rid the streets off bad guys is Loyiso Madinga as Frederique Kazadi. He pulls of an accent as a field technician in the cross-cultural special operations unit that undertakes dangerous missions around the continent.

The six part series touches on almost every pressing subject that still plagues the continent as a whole. From corrupt government officials, diamond smuggling and coupe de tats, to the very reason for it all, the greed for money.

All of the sombre subject matter is diluted by the beautiful and talented actresses that feature on the show. You’ll witness cameos from legendary thespians such as Abigail Kubeka, Connie Chiume, Kate Liquorish and Enhle Maphumulo that counterbalance all of the gunfire action.

Photo Credit: Netflix

Get started on the binge-fest and enjoy Pearl in her breakout role as lead following her amazing work on Quantico. Sign up on Netflix today and get a 30 day trial for free.

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27-year-old dancer, Pasha dos Santos from Cape Town sent ripples of fury through The Bachelor SA mansion once again this week.  And it’s all because of a date card from South Africa’s most eligible TV hunk, Marc Bucker.

Marc invited her on yet another one-on-one date, while some of the other gorgeous ladies in the house have not even had a chance to get to know him properly all on their own at all.

The name on the date card immediately infuriated the ladies, but what set them off even more, was Pasha’s nonchalant response to the invitation.

Although not being in the mood to see Marc, Pasha was pleasantly surprised with his efforts to impress her. Our Bachelor invited her to a couples Aerial Silks session, in other words, taking the time to do something he knows she enjoys.

The already sexy session, was followed by another surprise sensual experience in the form of a couples massage. And then, the date got even more intimate. Marc grabbed the opportunity to massage Pasha, which quickly led to a rose, and then, their first real kiss.

Meanwhile, back at the mansion, the ladies couldn’t stop talking about Pasha: Is there a connection? What does he see in her? Why has he chosen her again? What does the date card mean? When she returned, her excitement wasn’t reciprocated and she felt rather uncomfortable sharing the details about her date.

Pasha’s relationship with the ladies in the mansion has been problematic right from the start, when Marc handed her the Wild Rose and she decided to steal the show’s first date from Marisia with it. Some of them also deemed her lap dance at the talent show as inappropriate.

She may not be in a good space with the ladies, but this week showed that she has a special place in Marc’s heart…

Emotions at the mansion

A number of girls at the mansion are questioning the status of their relationships with Marc, after Pasha received another one-on-one date.

Rikki gets her first kiss from Marc! Photo: M-NET

Emotions ran high for: Bridget who wanted to leave the mansion due to her feeling like there was no point in staying; Andeline who was offended that he gave every girl a rose on their one-on-ones, but didn’t give her one; and lastly, Jess.R who just spent the week before with him at a getaway in Namibia and handed him a letter.

A trip to a bygone era

Five beautiful ladies were invited to spend time with Marc on a romantic steam train date – at Reef Steamers – where they spent time together as a group, as well as one-on-one. The ladies were Marisia, Daniella, Bridget Gillian and Jess.C.

Some of the ladies used the time to validate their relationships with Marc, ask some tough questions and to get to know him better. Bridget decided to use the valuable time to air house politics – much to the dislike of Marc.

Regardless, he still offered her a rose to put her mind at ease about their relationship. At the end of the group date, he asked Gillian to join him for special breakaway time, where he also presented her with a rose.

A shady Cocktail Party

The vibe at the Cocktail Party was not a pleasant one, as Pasha felt like an outsider among the ladies. This led to her throwing some shady comments throughout the night, as she felt like the ladies were gossiping behind her back. Her comment, “whisky for skinny girls”, upset many of the ladies in the house, especially Bridget, who felt like the comment was aimed towards her.

On a positive note, Rikki got her first kiss!… and it looked as though neither of them could get enough.

The Rose Ceremony

With eleven ladies left and three roses already handed out on dates, only seven roses were up for grabs. And, as feelings become more and more profound, Marc’s decision on which lady to send home only gets tougher.

Towards the end of the Rose Ceremony, Daniella was the unlucky lady to find herself without a rose and had to say goodbye. Her parting words: “I did mention to Marc on our group date that if you don’t see anything, please send me home.

But it is hard because I wasn’t able to really get to know him. I do believe in true love, and I do believe that everyone has that one person that they’re going to spend the rest of their life with. I do think I’ll meet someone and I do think I’ll fall in love and I’ll have the happily ever after – it’s just not with Marc,”.

The Bachelor SA Season 2 airs every Thursday at 19:00 on M-Net Channel 101. What did you think of last night’s romance, and the tantrums? Chat back in the comments section below!

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