Dreaming Whilst Black star: 'There's a misconception the show is about race'

Loosely inspired by real life events, the comedy series follows Kwabena (Salmon) who dreams of life as a filmmaker but is stuck in a recruitment job instead. The series follows him as he navigates family, love, life and everything in between in a way that will leave viewers certainly wanting more.

Chatting exclusively to RadioTimes.com about the new series, which is the first UK co-production for A24, Salmon revealed that there were many conversations that went into thinking about what he wanted to say with Dreaming Whilst Black.

When asked about his own thoughts going into forming the series, Salmon teased that viewers "actually have to wait till episode six to find out what the whole season's about" and also said: “I think there’s been a misconception that the show is about race."

He explained: "So when we came into writing this season, we very much wanted to discuss, we spoke about things that we are going through, within our community. Everybody knows about racism … we very much had conversations about what happens within us.

"So, an intercultural relationship – people don’t talk about that. We’re Black but we’re not all the same Black and actually cultures clash, particularly Jamaican and Nigerian cultures. That was big in the writer’s room, it was a whole argument that happened in the writer's room. I was like ‘Guys, let’s just take this energy and put it in the script’."

As well as Salmon reprising his leading role as Kwabena in the series, he's joined by other familiar faces including Demmy Ladipo (The Last Tree, We Are Lady Parts) as Maurice and Rachel Adedeji (Champion, R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned) as a heavily pregnant Funmi.

Speaking about Funmi's inclusion in the plot line of the comedy, Salmon revealed: “When we started out, Funmi being pregnant was actually just a plot device. But again, when you’re in the room and bring in certain people into the room – our script consultant Stephanie was just like ‘Look, you have a pregnant Black woman in the show. This is a perfect opportunity to talk about that and talk about actually, what does support look like for Black women?’"

Salmon highlights the importance of having a vast array of people in the writer's room in order to capture the authenticity of the Black British experience in Dreaming Whilst Black, saying: "Having diverse people in the room – we didn’t have just writers, we had novelists, comedians, race consultants. Had a couple conversations with Kehinde Andrews.

"When you get that diverse voice in the room, people start coming with their own things so even that, that was very much women in the room saying ‘Don’t waste Funmi’."

As for what else he wanted to explore in the series, Salmon says: “Also, the idea of friendship, even amongst guys. The anxiety of dating when you’re not financially okay – how do you navigate that situation? The insecurity of men plays a part in it, which we were open about in the room. There’s so many things we wanted to talk about but we never get to talk about so hopefully we get another season.”

Dreaming Whilst Black airs on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer from Monday 24th July 2023 at 10pm. The series will be available in full as a boxset on BBC iPlayer on 24^th July.

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