Why you should be watching Dreaming Whilst Black
Review Overview
Comedy
10Commentary
10Creativity
10David Farnor | On 28, Jul 2023
Adjani Salmon. Get ready to know that name. The filmmaker and writer became a talent to watch in 2021 with his pilot for Dreaming Whilst Black, based on his own web series – and then stole the show in Doctor Who’s 2022 New Year’s special, Eve of the Daleks. His fully fledged BBC Three show, which arrived in the summer of 2023, is more than worth the wait and cements him as a star on the rise.
Salmon stars as Kwabena, a filmmaker who is struggling to make his career a reality, let alone make ends meet. He works by day in recruitment and his office is a brilliantly observed microcosm of microagressions – from the off, Salm and Ali Hughes’ co-written scripts are sharp and scathing snapshots of privilege and racial bias, from a cringe-inducing incident involving a microwave lunch to a hilarious pitch of an ill-judged project by a white wannabe filmmaker with a painful level of entitlement.
A chance encounter with a former fellow film school graduate, Amy, inspires Kwabena to keep chasing his dreams – and the show benefits from also following her career path. Played with wit and verve by Dani Moseley, Amy has on the surface almost made it: she works at a film company and is consulted heavily on a big new project that is all about diversity. But the reality is less clear-cut, as she finds herself treated as “the only Black in the village” while her less experienced white colleagues are promoted above her. All the while she’s asked to make drinks and has to dodge someone trying to touch her hair.
Both Kwabena and Amy’s experiences shed light on the gate-keeping nature of the film industry, and its institutional racism, but what Dreaming Whilst Black is so brilliant at is making sure that the show’s central focus isn’t merely discrimination. It doesn’t define its characters solely by that struggle and, just as they are seen as bigger than that, the show is so much bigger as a result. Running through it is the deep questions of what it takes to succeed creatively as well as commercially, where the line is on “selling out” and where the boundaries are between real life, fiction and what you choose to put into each story you tell. Those themes gets richer and richer the more we get to know the characters as they grapple with family tensions, ambition, disappointment, fatherhood, romance, class and identity.
Dreaming is the operative word: Kwabena literally daydreams his way through so many situations, as our viewpoint switches from real life to his imagination with an enjoyable unpredictability. Some of these silly flourishes become heartfelt and personal, such as a chat between his alter-egos, while others are hilarious in their weirdness. By the time we’re with Kwabena on a date with Vanessa (the brilliant Babirye Bukilwa), we’re giggling at the expectations placed a man to pay the bill, before diving back into the chaos of Kwabena’s domestic situation, which involves him living with his cousin, Maurice (the amusing Demmy Ladipo), and Maurice’s pregnant wife Funmi (the endearing Rachel Adedeji) – their relationship is a touching, chaotic subplot that taps into the multicultural tensions of their household with so much wit and charm that they deserve their own sitcom.
The rest of the cast are equally brilliant, from Doctor Who’s Jo Martin as Kwabena’s mother, Grace, to Martina Laird and Roger Griffiths as Aunt Polly and Uncle Claude. Chuck in some brilliant cameos, including Will Hislop, The Pin’s Alexander Owen, Jessica Hynes and Peter Serafinowicz – and you have an electric ensemble who can take us from awkward laughs to serious drama, often (in the case of wedding videos and food delivery) at the same time.
At the heart of it all is the hugely talented Adjani Salmon, whose brilliant performance balances frustration and aspiration with warmth, personal authenticity and a steady stream of laughs. The series is frank about Kwabena being far from perfect, but Salmon gives him an underdog charm and, most of all, an awareness that he doesn’t deserve to be an underdog – the same is certainly true of Adjani Salmon. What will it cost Kwabena to make it as a filmmaker? Here’s hoping a second season will give him an opportunity to find out.