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As the TV version of the beloved novel lands, we meet its star, Dionne Brown
WHEN THE NOVEL Queenie was published in 2019, it was a revelation. Candice Carty-Williams’ best-selling tale of a 25-year-old British Jamaican woman, reckoning with everything from a breakup to racism at work and trauma at home, won Book of the Year at the British Book Awards. Now it’s an eight-part Channel 4 series, written by Carty-Williams, with newcomer Dionne Brown in the title role.
As an unusually sensitive, honest and three-dimensional portrait of a Black British woman, Queenie means a lot to its fans. ‘I remember reading it and thinking, “I didn’t know other people felt like this,”’ says Brown. ‘It was very cathartic. A lot of Black women would relate to Queenie’s negative self-perception and the feeling that you have to conform to a space without being able to commit to who you are.’
Brown auditioned for Champion, which Carty-Williams wrote for BBC One – ‘I didn’t get the part, but me and Candice had a good rapport. She is so approachable – her personality is like a hug.’ When she was later offered the role of Queenie, she felt pressure to do it justice. ‘I was like, “Man, this character did a lot for the culture. I don’t want to mess this up.”’ She needn’t have worried: she wears Queenie’s crown well, giving a moving performance.
‘For me, it was about embracing the mess of her,’ she says. ‘In our twenties, we all make decisions that are self-sabotage. We don’t know any better – like, boundaries? How am I supposed to affirm those?’
Queenie has some unpleasant sexual encounters, which made Brown apprehensive, as she hadn’t acted in intimate scenes before. ‘It was nerve-racking, but I had a fantastic intimacy coordinator,’ she says. One of Que
