A teaser trailer for the upcoming BBC television adaptation of Malorie Blackman’s Noughts + Crosses has been released.

Jack Rowan appears in the trailer as Callum and Masali Baduza as Sephy, as they embark on a forbidden and passionate romance across race and class divides. 

The cast also includes Helen Baxendale, Paterson Joseph and Ian Hart, as well as Stormzy who plays the role of newspaper editor Kolawale that was specifically created for the TV series, adapted by Mammoth Screen.

First announced in 2016, the adaptation comes to BBC One on 5th March 2020, at 9 PM, with all episodes available for streaming on BBC iPlayer immediately afterwards.

Blackman published Noughts + Crosses in 2001 as a way of tackling racism head on, imagining an alternative history where a ruling black class, the “Crosses”, enslaved a white underclass, the “Noughts”. Across the series, more than 1.7m copies have sold in the UK and in export.

Crossfire, the fifth book in the series, was published in August 2019.