Anything that brings the great Lennie James and Sharon D Clarke to our screens demands attention, but this BBC adaptation of Bernardine Evaristo ’s 2013 novel about homophobia in Caribbean communities is – judging by the first four of its eight episodes – painfully slow. James, best known now for his years on The Walking Dead, plays Barrington Jedidiah Walker, a 74-year-old, Antigua-born, Hackney-based paterfamilias. Barry has a property empire, two daughters and a grandson with his wife Carmel (Clarke), a Daimler and an enviable wardrobe of natty clothes.
He’s also been covertly in love and having sex with his best friend Morris for decades. Though billed as “an emotional rollercoaster” director Hong Khaou’s series plays more like a muted meander around two detailed but barely changing character studies. Barrington’s homosexuality is revealed early on when, having cracked down on some rampant anti-gay prattle from Carmel’s church friends, he suggests to Morris (Ariyon Bakare) that they abscond together to Miami, which he smilingly claims is “full of poofters”.
Morris demurs, but later he will implore Barry to admit his homosexuality, only to be rebuffed. There’s a lot of this inconsequential back-and-forth in the first three episodes, which features lots of repetitive flashbacks. Younger actors play the characters in their Antiguan youth.
James and Clarke, both 58 IRL, convincingly play both septuagenarians and thirtysomethings, while Bakare looks 40 .