ITVXsRichesis a show with the dial turned up.
With creator Abby Ajayi citingDynastyandDallasas influences on the show, its small wonder thatRichesis so delightfully OTT.
Richesfollows the Richards, a family at war, vying for control of a business Flair & Glory.
Ajayi explains that she has always wanted to do a family business show.
InRiches, the stakes are even higher because this is a family business bound up with Black identity.
Flair & Glory is a cosmetics and hair care company, a choice that Ajayi made intentionally.
Yes, a Black woman has changed her wig.
We can just keep moving.
Its life, it happens, wigs and all.
Do you join them?
Do you stand on the outside and say it’s crap, but still worry about your own future?
So they’re finally getting their seat at the table, and then the rules have moved.
Those who are after escapism dont be afraid, youll still find it here.
The show is by no means didactic, its a drama first and foremost.
Those conversations are subtextual to the character stories, the emotional stories.
She explains: It doesn’t end you.
We navigate that stuff.
For her the casr represents the fact that, There isn’t a monolithic Black person or Black perspective.
And even this idea of a Black community there is community but we feel differently, we vote differently.
We have different expectations of life.
But significantly, characters sometimes switch into Yoruba by no means a common occurrence on British TV.
Ajayi describes her grasp of Yoruba as ropey she can understand it well but isnt as comfortable speaking it.
Ajayi tells me she wroteRicheswhile feeling homesick across the pond.
Richesalso speaks to the global connections of Black-British people.
Ajayi was keen to reflect the fact that Black British families contain multitudes.
She says: Our hearts are in myriad places.
There’s so much talk about identity, but it’s not a fixed thing.
It’s not a mutable thing.
You are elements of lots of different places.
Riches will air on ITVX on Dec. 22.
