Forbidden LOVE

Jack Rowan stars in a tale of romance played out across a bitter racial divide

- IAN MACEWAN, ALISON SLADE, VICTORIA WILSON

What would life be like in today’s Britain if, rather than European powers colonising Africa, history had happened the other way around? That’s the premise of new six-part BBC1 drama Noughts + Crosses, adapted from Malorie Blackman’s young adult novel series.

The story is set in an alternative London where the culture of black colonists in ‘Albion’ has been dominant for hundreds of years, since the African Empire’s invasion of Europe.

The indigenous white population – or ‘blanks’, as they are termed – are the underclass, restricted to the worst jobs and housing and battling an authoritarian regime.