TV Pick of the Week: Champion - review by Yvette Huddleston

Pacy and powerful, it opens as British rap star Bosco Champion (Malcolm Kamulete), newly out of prison, demonstrates just why he is so admired by his fans. However, since he has been away, new kid on the block Bulla (Corey Weekes) has emerged who is arrogant and more than willing to challenge Bosco and take his crown.

Meanwhile on the domestic front, things are complicated. Bosco’s younger sister Vita (Déja J Bowens) is a talented singer and songwriter herself. In fact, she writes most of her older brother’s material, although that is kept under wraps and his fans are none the wiser. Not surprisingly, this situation is beginning to undermine and annoy Vita, especially when everyone treats Bosco like the golden boy and she is the hired help. A glorified PA to Bosco, Vita wants more – she has a fine, soulful singing voice but is willing to sacrifice her own performing career in order to help her brother. Until one humiliation too many prompts her to take decisive action and set herself up in competition to her sibling.

Carty-Williams’s smart, engaging script also addresses the wider, complicated family dynamic with Nadine Marshall as feisty matriarch Aria who runs a successful Caribbean café, a business she has built up since she separated from dashing but unreliable husband Beres (Ray Fearson), father to Vita and Bosco. Beres is a well-known figure around Lewisham who spends most of his time hanging out at his reggae radio station (something of a vanity project) and turning up late to family occasions, including to his son’s 25th birthday barbecue. Aria now has a kind, reliable partner in Lennox (Karl Collins) but there are hints that she still holds a torch for her charming ex. Vita also has a secret – she is having a clandestine relationship with Bosco’s DJ and best friend Memet (Kerim Hassan).

So there is plenty of drama and jeopardy in a pacy narrative that keeps you hooked throughout. What marks it out as something really special, however, is the way in which the fantastic musical interludes are woven into the storytelling with specially written original compositions from the best of Black British music including grime pioneer Ghetts and Ray BLK, who also plays Vita’s bubbly best friend Honey.