Dreaming Whilst Black review: wry comedy about a struggling filmmaker
This confident, funny show from Adjani Salmon is ‘whimsically quirky’
“Dreaming Whilst Black”, a new BBC comedy “about a man who quits his corporate career to try to cut it as a filmmaker”, is itself the product of creator and star Adjani Salmon’s decision to leave a steady job to pursue his dream, said Dan Einav in the Financial Times. Salmon’s fictional counterpart is British Jamaican Kwabena, who walks out of a job in recruitment in order to work full-time on his film, a Windrush-era drama. Alas, he finds “a dearth of opportunities for someone with no experience, few connections and dark skin”.
The series sends up the film industry’s “troubling relationship” with race, skewering the superficial application of words such as “diversity” and “inclusivity”, and showing how minority storytellers are compelled to lean into reductive stereotypes to get their work noticed. But it’s often “more breezy than biting, and as whimsically quirky as it is wryly observed”.
Kwabena and his friends come up against a host of “microprejudices”, said Carol Midgley in The Times, but these are “catalogued with wit and a nice light touch”. And the switches between the fantasy life in Kwabena’s head and “disappointing reality” are nicely done.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
It’s a confident, funny show that “works as a fable of modern black Britishness and also a tender prayer to the frustrations of the modern creative”, said Barbara Ellen in The Observer. The cast is “pitch perfect”, and if the series ends on a tense note, it is “an unfinished one”, suggesting that more episodes may be on their way. “Yes please.”
Watch on BBC iPlayer
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
El Palace Barcelona: old-world luxury in the heart of the city
The Week Recommends This historic hotel is set within a former Ritz outpost moments from the Passeig de Gràcia
-
The best history books to read in 2025
The Week Recommends These fascinating deep-dives are perfect for history buffs
-
July 4 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Friday’s political cartoons include the danger of talking politics at a family picnic, and disappearing Medicaid entitlements
-
The Anatomy of Painting: Jenny Saville's 'stunning' retrospective
The Week Recommends Saville's new collection features 'masterpieces' from throughout her career
-
M3GAN 2.0: riotous action sequel to the comedy-horror hit about a killer doll
The Week Recommends A 'ridiculously' entertaining 'hyper-camp mash-up' of Terminator 2 and Mission: Impossible
-
Shami Chakrabarti picks her favourite books
The Week Recommends The politician and human rights activist shares the polemics that inspired her
-
Properties of the week: bright and cheerful houses
The Week Recommends Featuring homes in Cornwall, London and Norfolk
-
6 sleek homes for modernists
Feature Featuring a concrete-and-steel home in South Carolina and a renovated 19th-century former carriage house in Pennsylvania
-
The Genius Myth: a 'fresh and unpretentious' book from Helen Lewis
The Week Recommends This 'angry, witty book' by Helen Lewis is a valuable critique of the 'flattering fiction' of genius
-
From Hilde, With Love – the 'moving' story of an accidental revolutionary
The Week Recommends Liv Lisa Fries gives a 'compelling' performance as the soft-spoken heroine.
-
Exploring Georgia's southern highlands
The Week Recommends Visit Javakheti, Georgia's 'lake district', and meet the last-remaining 'spirit wrestlers' in the region