Comedy-thriller coming to BBC One next year

The BBC has today confirmed the stars of its  new comedy thriller Black Ops.

Hammed Animashaun from Amazon fantasy series The Wheel of Time joins Famalam’s Gbemisola Ikumelo and Akemnji (AK) Ndifornyen in the six-part series they created.

Set in Hackney, East London, Black Ops is the story of Dom and Kay, two Police Community Support Officers who find themselves out of their depth  in the murky world of deep cover infiltration.

Dom, played by Ikumelo, is described as ‘feisty and takes no nonsense’ while Animashaun plays Kay her naive, but surprisingly capable partner who lives with his church elder. The pair end up on a high-stakes secret mission where they face one of the leaders of the notorious Brightmarsh gang, Tevin, played by Ndifornyen.

The series was announced in August last year when Ikumelo said: ‘These characters have been swimming around in my head for a long time and so finally seeing them get to live and speak and just be ridiculous is super exciting.’

Now she added ‘It’s great to be working with Akemnji again after Famalam and Hammed is such a funny, brilliant, generous actor. I’m chomping at the bits to get started.’

And Ndifornyen commented: ‘Cat’s finally out the bag… This has been an incredible labour of love. We’ve got a brilliant cast and crew and I’m so excited to get going. Let the games begin!’

The pair wrote the half-hour episodes with duo Joe Tucker and Lloyd Woolf, whose credits include Click And Collect and Witless. Filming is now under way in London with the series set to hit BBC One and iPlayer next year.

Josh Cole, head of comedy at programme-makers BBC Studios said: ‘Black Ops is an ambitious comedy thriller that defies traditional genre expectations. The scripts are gripping and hilarious, and we’re delighted to have Gbemi, Hammed and AK leading our talented cast.’

Made by: BBC Studios Comedy Production with Mondo Created by: Gbemisola Ikumelo,  Akemnji Ndifornyen
Written by: Gbemisola Ikumelo,  Akemnji Ndifornyen, Joe Tucker,  Lloyd Woolf
Directed by: Ben Gregor
Executive producers: Gbemisola Ikumelo,  Akemnji Ndifornyen, Joe Tucker, Lloyd Woolf, Josh Cole
Commissioning editors: Gregor Sharp and Seb Barwell

Published: 15 Jun 2022