’s new drama series begins with its protagonist, Jenkins (Dionne Brown), in stirrups — and in pain — at a visit to her OBGYN, during which a technician tells her in response to her audible discomfort, “I’m sure you’re fine, strong girl like you,” before asking, “How many sexual partners do you have?” The scene sets audience expectations for the coming-of-age story based on Candice Carty-Williams’ 2019 novel of the same name, about a 25-year-old British-Jamaican girl in South London running from abandonment issues spawned by her estranged relationship with her mother — which seem to catch up to her through every man whose attention she clamors for, be it her boyfriend Tom (Jon Pointing) or the sexual suitors she entertains after signing up for a dating app when he asks for a “clean break.” “Authenticity is really important to me,” Carty-Williams said at a special press screening of the series in London, which attended. “When you see something on screen that doesn’t represent you, you really feel it.
I had to make sure that when I was watching it — because I was in the edit for like nine months — that everything was working. You would feel when something didn’t feel right or something didn’t look right; it didn’t look like us.” Those moments sometimes required having difficult conversations, said creator Carty-Williams, also an executive producer and showrunner.
“It’s worth it when you want to see yourself properly represented, .