Champion, the explosive BBC drama from Candice Carty Williams, is going to be your summer binge

Queenie author Candice Carty Williams is bringing us “a London-based music drama” on the BBC, Champion, and we are absolutely buzzing for it.

As part of a larger push by the BBC to adapt fantastic books by female authors – think Dolly Alderton’s Everything I Know About Love and Nikki May’s Wahala – Candice will be bringing a “love letter to Black British music” centred around fame and family rivalry to our screens very soon.

Champion will be an original story from the author, and marks her first TV project. Here’s everything we know so far.

Who stars in Champion?

Top Boy‘s Malcolm Kamulete will play Bosco , “a rap sensation who comes home from prison ready to dominate the music industry”. Actress Déja J Bowens and singer Ray BLK join as their TV debut, alongside Nadine Marshall (Small Axe), Ray Fearon (Beauty and the Beast) and Jo Martin (Doctor Who, Top Boy).

Also starring in Champion is Kerim Hassan (Once Upon a Time In London), Adeyinka Akinrinade (Everything I Know About Love), Tom Forbes (Wolf Hall, Knightfall), Genesis Lynea (Shadow and Bone, Silent Witness), Karl Collins (Attack The Block), Francis Lovehall (Death on the Nile), Corey Weekes (Coronation Street, Doctors) and Rachel Adedeji (Dreaming Whilst Black).

Ray BLK will also oversee the music on the show – which will undoubtedly be integral to its plot – alongside grime pioneer Ghetts.

What is Champion about?

According to the BBC’s plot synopsis, Champion will be “a love letter to Black British music set in south London… a celebration of a sound that has long been the beating heart of our culture.”