by Rachel Ogbu

The writer of BAFTA winning crime TV drama series ‘Damilola, Our Loved Boy’, Levi David Addai has been speaking on diversity in British Television. He believes Broadcasting Chiefs should improve small-screen diversity emphasising that it goes further than just “throwing black faces on TV.”

“What people are really striving for are more stories where the culture of the person is truthful and real and then we can see real diversity. Diversity is not just having different faces, it’s ‘this person is from this background and that permeates everything they do’”.

‘Damilola, Our Loved Boy’ which captures the perspective from Damilola Taylor’s family after the young boy was murdered and the traumatic fight for justice won the Single Drama BAFTA TV Award and the Screen Nation Film and Television Award for Diversity in Drama Production. It was nominated for a BAFTA TV Award for Best Writer and a Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Single Drama. “First of all, we talked about the situation still prevailing in this society and the community in which Dami was stabbed to death, and in general what’s happening with so many deaths of young people,” Levi David Addai told Belfast Telegraph. “I was of the opinion that this story should continue to be told, so as to enable us to get a positive message into the community so that young people will learn lessons.”

Levi David Addai born to Ghanaian parents has been writing plays as far back as 2005 with 93.2FM which The Times reviewed as showing as “enormous generosity in Addai’s writing. He shows us the caring, supportive side of the community.. this is a memorable and decidedly promising debut.” He also wrote House of Agnes and Oxford Street which was nominated for both a Writers’ Guild award in the “Best Play (Theatre)” category (2008) and an “Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre” category of the Olivier Award (2009).

Now Addai’s latest project sees him writing the BBC One commissioned TV adaptation of Noughts and Crosses, the groundbreaking young adult book by Malorie Blackman OBE.

Rachel Ogbu

UK Based Strategic, multidisciplinary Writer with an eye for innovation and pixel perfection. MA in New Media and Internet Technologies. “Although my skill set is vast, my greatest expertise revolve in the worlds of social media, content creation and print collateral. My wish is to combine my knowledge and experience in these areas, to deliver the best creative to my employer’s clients and their audiences.”