‘Dreaming Whilst Black’: Showtime Acquires Buzzy BBC Comedy From Big Deal Films & A24

Max Goldbart
·4 min read
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EXCLUSIVE: Showtime has picked up the BBC’s BAFTA-winning buzzy breakout comedy Dreaming Whilst Black from Big Deal Films and A24.

The move is the latest step in the show’s ascent, having started life as a web series before moving to BBC pilot, then series and subsequently being picked up by A24 for distribution in the space of several years.

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Adjani Salmon’s comedy launched last week on BBC Three and has garnered highly favorable reviews. It follows Kwabena, played by Salmon, an aspiring filmmaker stuck in a dead-end recruitment job who takes the first step to achieving his dream of creating a TV show. However, he is quickly confronted with the tribulations of balancing finances, love and his own sense of reality, while the show deals with themes including racism, microaggressions and elitism.

The series will launch on Paramount+ with Showtime on September 8 and premiere two days later on linear, and it joins other UK shows on Showtime such as We Hunt Together and Episodes. With writers and actors striking, U.S. players may show more of a propensity over the coming months to buy UK shows in order to populate their streamers.

The Dreaming Whilst Black pilot won a BAFTA for Emerging Talent: Fiction and became one of the first shows to be co-produced and distributed by A24’s fledgling UK office late last year. Deadline understands several other territory deals are near to completion.

“Retaining the authentic voice”

Speaking to Deadline, Dreaming EP Dhanny Joshi paid tribute to Euphoria maker A24 for “encouraging Adjani to be the truest version of himself” and Bizet Media’s Bal Samra for helping his indie Big Deal “navigate the marketplace and meet potential partners.”

Adjani Salmon. Image: BBC/Big Deal Films
Adjani Salmon. Image: BBC/Big Deal Films

“It was important for us to retain that authentic voice and A24 was on board with that,” he added. “They didn’t want us to change or water anything down.”

While Dreaming’s approach to dealing with themes such as racism in the workplace and microaggressions was penned with the UK in mind, Joshi said the lived experiences detailed in the show “will translate” to other nations.

He cited a scene in which Salmon is chided by a white co-worker for eating cooked food in the office. “I know people in the U.S. who have totally been there,” added Joshi. “You can be conscious and aware of these things in all places.”

Salmon’s “voice, authorship and level of truth” will work in the U.S., added EP and Big Deal Films Co-Founder Thomas Stogdon, while Joshi predicted the Showtime deal could transform Salmon into a household name across the pond.

Both credited the slow pace with which they and Salmon built Dreaming as one of the secrets behind its success, with the web series having aired more than five years ago.

“We were then given lots of time to organically develop by the BBC,” added Joshi, who praised BBC comedy commissioners Jon Petrie and Tanya Qureshi – the latter of whom shephered Michaela Coel’s I May Destroy You – for helping strike a balance between drama and comedy. “We got given that space and time to hone in on the creative and really make it what it could be.”

With this in mind, Stogdon added that Big Deal had been able to retain the “essence of what we loved about the web series” while elevating and broadening its scope for the BBC and now Showtime.

The pair are hopeful the BBC will greenlight a second run of Dreaming while they also focus on other projects that “talk about the world in a contemporary way and deal with awkward issues,” said Stogdon.

“Our mission statement is to champion contemporary projects that shine a light on voices you don’t see on TV,” added Joshi. “There are other stories that need to be told.”

Alongside Salmon, Dani Moseley (Everything I Know About Love), Demmy Ladipo (We Are Lady Parts), Rachel Adedeji (Champion), Babirye Bukilwa (We Hunt Together), Alexander Owen (Jurassic World Dominion) and Will Hislop (Gangs of London) star in Dreaming. Joshi, Stogdon and Salmon are EPs. Salmon writes with Ali Hughes and Yemi Oyefuwa, and directors are Jermain Julien, Koby Adom, Sebastian Thiel and Joelle Mae David. Nicola Gregory is producer.

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