The Famalam and Queen’s Gambit star on the shows that shaped him as a child, from the school-set drama to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and the Office
Growing up in east London in the early 90s, I watched a lot of TV – I was being reared on a staple diet of African American programmes, but we watched a lot of British shows, too. A homegrown series that stood out to me was a live-action sci-fi show called Watt on Earth, written by [Doctor Who writers] Pip and Jane Baker, which aired on CBBC in 1991 and 1992. The premise was that an alien called Watt comes down from his home planet to a family called the Ruddocks, who live in a town called Haxton. He’s on the run from his evil uncle and his uncle’s chief henchman, Jemadah. Watt can transanimateobjectify, turning in to different objects, but something always goes wrong – if he becomes a bicycle bell, he’ll sound like a foghorn, for example – whereas Jemadah can transform in to other people. That stuck in my head, as did shows such as The Biz – set in a stage school – and Grange Hill. That was huge for me. Phil Redmond and his team dealt with so many social issues so cleverly, and I was seeing young black actors such as Arnold Oceng and Michael Obiora – people who looked like me – on TV, killing it.
