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Founder's Letter: The Kind of Black Male Lead I Want to See More Of

I will never hide the fact that I love a good bit of TV. I feel like between the noise of the wider world and my responsibilities in life, TV is actually my de-stresser. I love watching a series that becomes part of my routine each week. A good TV show seeps into my conversations and at its best, leaves me thinking I wish I could watch it for the first time all over again.

Yet, I realised I usually watch shows with women as the central characters. In fact, I go out of my way to find shows where black women are the protagonists, and that ain’t a bad thing at all. I love seeing black women front and centre. I love a show with flawed black women - women who aren’t perfect, who don’t respect respectability politics, but have a heart to fight for the people and things they feel most passionately about.

Yet, when I think of shows that I love, or have loved, especially dramas where men - and specifically black men - are the leads, I can literally count them on one hand, and two of them star Sterling K. Brown as the main character.

Pierre C4

So I’m excited and fascinated by the launch of Channel 4’s brand-new show Pierre. It can often feel like black men, and the idea of what it is to be a black man, are hyper-visible, yet there can still be a lack of depth, complexity, softness and generosity shown to their characters. And let’s face it, we have all well and truly moved on from the photo shoots of black men surrounded by flowers to show us their softer side.

Pierre is about a West London duty solicitor who, like many of us, is navigating that all-too-familiar tension of our professional lives pulling us in one direction while our personal lives need us in the opposite direction. Yet what is most intriguing about the show is how committed Pierre is to challenging a system that isn’t working for the people it is supposed to serve. Rather than centring the police or detectives, Pierre puts us alongside the solicitor fighting for people the system has already written off.

And perhaps that is what makes the premise so interesting: how do you fight for justice when you are fighting against an entire system? In today’s climate, Pierre feels timely. How do we show up for others? How do we make decisions that enable justice, especially when doing so can cost us our jobs and financial security? What does pursuing justice really cost us personally if we are committed to making society fairer? Those are the questions Pierre asks me - and hopefully you too.

Yet, Pierre also asks a question that feels relevant now more than ever. Who gets to be our heroes on British television?

C4 Pierre

Like the black fictional women who draw me to the screen, I love the chance to root for a black man who isn’t perfect, who isn’t surface-level representation, but a black man who reflects the real world. Someone who wants to do the right thing, who is trying to do so, but stumbles along the way - a little complicated and messy. A man with ambition and heart that I can root for week in and week out, and someone who stands up for the people who often go unseen and unheard.

I’m excited to have a show that has made me curious, a show that promises to seep into my WhatsApp group conversations. A show that just may become part of my weekly routine and, if it lives up to its promise, leaves me wishing I could watch it for the first time all over again.

But for now, I’m looking forward to meeting Pierre and hopefully adding another black man to my very short list of black male TV heroes.

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Pierre premieres on Channel 4 on Monday 5th October at 9pm. You can watch the trailer here