When Dionne Brown was cast as the lead in Queenie — the TV adaptation of Candice Carty-Williams’s award- winning debut novel — she phoned her friends and family and told them in no uncertain terms: “I f***ing bagged that ting.” Did she celebrate? “Nah, I was just so gassed, it was like, I don’t even want to be drunk. I want to be sober all the time so I can be like, ‘It’s real.’”
Immediately Brown, 28, distinguishes herself from the book’s protagonist. Queenie Jenkins is a Jamaican-British 25-year-old working in a mostly white newspaper office who prefers to dull her senses with sauvignon blanc and sex. Following a difficult break-up, Queenie begins spiralling towards rock bottom, putting her career and relationships in jeopardy along
