Author Malorie Blackman has hit back at critics who accused a new BBC dramatisation of her novel, Noughts + Crosses, of being “dangerously divisive” and “anti-white”.
Blackman dismissed such accusations, which came after the first episode of the six part series was broadcast on Thursday evening, as “absurd nonsense”.
The show, which is based on Blackman’s 2001 young adult novel, is set in an alternative Britain, where black people are the ruling elite and white people are the underclass.
It tells the story of the forbidden romance which develops between love-struck teens Sephy, a Cross, played by Masali Baduza, and Callum, a Nought, played by Jack Rowan.
‘Absurd nonsense’
Rapper Stormzy, a self-described “diehard fan” of the novels, also features in the last episode of the series as a newspaper editor.
Writing in the Daily Mail, Calvin Robinson – a teacher and former Brexit Party candidate, who describes himself as mixed race – suggested the show exaggerated racism in Britain and at times “stoops to naked race-baiting, stirring up antipathy under the pretence of attacking racist attitudes”.
In a post on Twitter linking to the article, he described the show as “more anti-British, anti-white racism from the BBC”.
On Saturday, Blackman replied: “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.
“Go take a seat waaaay over there in the cold, dark and bitter haters’ corner.”
First impressions
The first episode of the show has won praise from reviewers.
The Guardian gave it four stars and said its stark demonstration of structural racism made it “revolutionary”.
Meanwhile The Independent – which gave the adaptation three stars – said the show felt “apt at a time in which racist discourse is increasingly normalised in the shadow of Trump and Brexit” and predicted it would induce hernias in “certain right-wing, BBC-bashing commentators”.
However, it also said the two main characters were “thinly drawn” and that “the budget, or lack of it” was sometimes evident.
All episodes of the show are available to stream on BBC iPlayer now.
