Marlon James doesn’t just tell stories; he creates entire worlds. The professor and Booker prize-winning author’s look at the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in 1976 Jamaica, A Brief History of Seven Killings, took in everything from the crack wars of New York City to the political schisms of Cuba. Black Leopard, Red Wolf – the opening volume of his prehistoric African fantasy series, which is being adapted for the screen by Michael B Jordan – creates a landscape that feels like Conan the Barbarian viewed through the prism of ancient African mysticism. His work always depicts complex ecosystems operating on cursed topographies.
Now, he has turned his talents to a new genre: mystery. Get Millie Black (Wednesday 5 March, 9pm, Channel 4), his first foray into television, is a detective tale in which the titular police officer tracks down a missing schoolgirl. On the surface it’s a grisly, witty thriller – but it’s also so much more. Millie (Tamara Lawrance) returns to Jamaica after years living in London, only to discover that the dehumanisation and exploitation of Black bodies didn’t end with the slave trade; it just evolved. The more she investigates young Janet’s (Shernet Swearine) disappearance, the more she realises it is only the tip of a corrupt iceberg that reaches across race, class and international borders. Her investigation ends up catching the attention of ambitious Scotland Yard Supt Luke Holborn (Joe Dempsie), whose interference in the case becomes another albatross round Millie’s neck. It’s a transfixing testimony to how colonialism still breeds violence on both sides of the Atlantic, an elegantly told tale that walks the tightrope between pulpy action and unflinching intergenerational trauma.
