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The Guardian
06-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Alex Wheatle obituary
Best known as the author of the Crongton series of young adult novels, Alex Wheatle, who has died aged 62 of prostate cancer, was a writer, speaker and activist whose well-observed stories based on his own life gave a painful and vivid picture of his tough early years and adolescence in south London. His experiences, of growing up in an abusive care system, police brutality and a spell in prison, shaped Alex's worldview and he wanted others to know about them; his passion and anger were tempered but never dulled by his subsequent success as a writer. Known as the Brixton Bard, he wrote fiercely but with understanding, energy and humour in a series of adult novels, starting with Brixton Rock (1999), before switching to young adult (YA) fiction. In 2020 Alex's early life was the focus of Steve McQueen's film Small Axe: Alex Wheatle, the fourth drama in his BBC television anthology series highlighting institutional racism and the black British experience from the late 1960s to the early 80s. Alex was placed in care as a toddler and grew up in Shirley Oaks, a children's home in Croydon where, it was later revealed, physical, mental and sexual abuse had been widespread over decades; he wrote of the violence inflicted on him in Sufferah: Memoir of a Brixton Reggae Head (2023). He was born in Brixton, the son of Almira Gunter, who was married with four children when she arrived in the UK in 1961, where she met Alfred Wheatle, also from Jamaica, who worked as a carpenter. Soon after Alex's birth, his mother returned home, leaving her baby son with his father, who struggled to cope. At 15, Alex was moved from Shirley Oaks to a social services hostel in Brixton. Here, he had his first experience of the West Indian community and was quick to embrace his black identity with clothes, hair, language and particularly reggae music, appearing as DJ Yardman Irie at 16 and becoming a founder member and the lyricist of the Crucial Rocker sound system group. He was also active in the struggle against police racism and brutality, and was arrested and given a prison sentence for his involvement in the Brixton uprising of 1981. Alex's cell mate during his four months in Wormwood Scrubs was Simeon, a Rastafarian who recognised the younger man's deep feelings of isolation. 'He understood too well that I was disconnected from my roots, culture and people from the moment I was taken into care at two and a half,' Alex wrote later. 'He took it upon himself to reconnect me. He pushed CLR James's The Black Jacobins into my eager hands. 'This will tell you ah liccle something about where you come from and where you stand in the struggle,' he said.' He introduced Alex to other black authors including Chester Himes, who Alex later cited as the inspiration for his own writing, along with Maya Angelou, Charles Dickens, Linton Kwesi Johnson and John Steinbeck. But when Alex began to write, it was his life not books that inspired his debut novel, Brixton Rock; set in 80s south London, its central character, 16-year-old Brenton Brown, carries the same story of neglect and subsequent rebellion against authority. It was praised by critics and won the London Arts Board new writers award in 1999. This was followed in 2001 with East of Acre Lane, 'a similarly hard-hitting slice of social commentary', said one critic, set against the backdrop of the 1981 riots; and several other books including The Dirty South (2008) and Brenton Brown (2011), a sequel to Brixton Rock. He also drew on his own story for Uprising, a one-man play he wrote and first performed in 2011, in London and on tour, before touring it again in 2012 as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of Jamaican independence. Despite his success, and being made MBE for services to literature in 2008, Alex became disillusioned with adult publishing – 'I felt like I was this token black writer who writes about ghetto stuff' – and turned instead to fiction for young adults, telling similar stories but in a lighter style and with more imaginative licence. Instead of recreating Brixton, Alex created Crongton, his own fictional world, with a multicultural cast of pumped up, slang-speaking teenagers navigating life on an inner-city estate. Character-led and told mostly through raucous dialogue, the Crongton stories gave a realistic picture of growing up in contemporary Britain. The switch to YA brought Alex immediate success. Liccle Bit (2015) was longlisted for the Carnegie medal in 2016 and Crongton Knights (2016) won the Guardian children's fiction prize. 'There was a real sense of excitement, both in the room and among readers, when Alex was announced as the 50th winner of the Guardian children's fiction prize,' remembers Claire Armitstead, then books editor at the Guardian. 'Here were sexting and gang violence and early-morning bailiffs' visits to tower block flats: the stuff of grim news headlines freshly minted in a glorious invented slang that gave his characters ownership of their stories with not a whiff of condescension. As the author and prize judge David Almond said, the novel 'hummed with the beat of real life'.' More Crongton books followed, including Straight Outta Crongton (2017) and Kerb Stain Boys (2018), as well as YA novels exploring aspects of black history including Cane Warriors (2020), on a slave rebellion in Jamaica in 1760, and Kemosha of the Caribbean (2022), about an escaped slave girl's adventures as a pirate. A 10-part BBC comedy drama series, Crongton, based on the books, launched in March. I first met Alex when he won the Guardian children's fiction prize. I was inspired by his passionate belief that, by telling the stories of his life and the lives of other children like him, he could make a difference to young readers who had largely been excluded from representation in books. He later summed up what the recognition brought by the award meant to him: 'I still see myself sometimes as 'little Alex' who never thought he would achieve anything. You grow up with this low self-esteem that is hard to fight against.' He spoke in schools and at festivals, encouraging young people to write their own stories. Aine Venables, the education manager of Hay festival who took him on a week's tour speaking to children across Wales, said: 'Alex's life experience and his warmth grounded his writing, and his storytelling brilliance captivated thousands of young people.' Last year, as a 'Thinker in Residence' at Hay, speaking to audiences of all ages, Alex advocated for greater interventions by government and those involved in the book world to do more to help even the very youngest children to enjoy reading so that their lives, like his, could be changed. He also campaigned for Prostate Cancer UK, having been diagnosed with the disease in 2023, speaking honestly to men, particularly black men, to debunk fears about the necessary check up. He is survived by his wife, Beverley (nee Robinson), whom he married in 1999, and their three children, Marvin, Tyrone and Serena. Alex Alphonse Wheatle, writer, born 3 January 1963; died 16 March 2025
Telegraph
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Crongton, review: a zippy new adaptation of Alex Wheatle's Crongton Knights series
Are the kids alright? Definitely not is the feeling gripping the nation after Stephen Graham's Netflix hit Adolescence, which is facing calls to be shown in schools thanks to its galvanising storyline about teenage masculinity in crisis. Still, not all TV shows about the lives of young boys are entirely intent on depicting modern adolescence as a dystopian nightmare, at least not all of the time, at any rate. Certainly, Crongton, BBC Three's zippy new 10-part adaptation of Alex Wheatle 's YA series Crongton Knights, set on a fictional housing estate and focusing on a frightened 13-year-old boy caught up in a gang revenge plot, feels determined to warm the heart rather than chill the marrow. Where Adolescence offers no easy answers in depicting the mind-warping horror story of online Incel culture, Crongton serves up street violence, parental neglect and the awful loneliness of being a misunderstood teenager in distractingly lovely, pin-balling video game colours and the odd floating heart emoji. And it's mostly brilliant. It's a tragedy Wheatle, an under-sung YA novelist, never got to see this TV version: he died last week from prostate cancer. Adapted by Archie Maddox, the show notionally devotes each episode to a different teenager at South Crongton Comprehensive, such as Saira, newly arrived from war-torn Syria and Venetia, the daughter of devout Catholic parents still mourning the loss of her cousin to gang violence a year previously, yet determined to flood Crongton with positive vibes. The overarching story, though, belongs to the diminutive Lemar 'Liccle Bit' Jackson, who lives with his mum, older sister, baby nephew and grandmother in a cramped and noisy flat and who falls under the orbit of local gang leader Manjaro after Manjaro showers him with cash and affection. Soon Liccle Bit is hiding weapons in his bedroom and lying to his friends; it's typical of this show's deft deflection of hardcore reality that when he finally confesses what's going on to his mate Mckay, Mckay initially wants nothing to do with Liccle Bit's 'pickle'. Crongton feels properly fresh in its kinetic splicing of grimy naturalism with animated cartoon sequences (an estate brawl is depicted in kapow! style graphics) and the frequent screen raid by video game visuals and mobile phone graphics – a sniper's crossfire; a cascade of confetti. Director Ethosheia Hylton cleverly parallels life as imagined or dreamt of for its young protagonists with its harsher or more prosaic reality – Liccle Bit imagines Manjaro as a horror film villain with diabolic red eyes; a fight with neighbouring gang North Crongton takes places with splurge guns a la Bugsy Malone; the somewhat saintly Venetia dances in the playground as though life is one long heartwarming TikTok video. Meanwhile, the comedy is deliciously oddball – Mckay at one point engages in a roast with an evil cackling dinner lady – and at times downright surreal; science-mad teenager Juniper likes to conduct experiments in the school toilets. It's an ingenious use of disorientation, yes, people on the estate might get 'deleted' with alarming frequency, but Crongton also inhabits a tenderised teenage world quivering with giddy, escapist possibility. Most of the actors are making their TV debut – the producers cast it following a social media open call out – and the approach reaps both rewards and the odd wobble. Yet Samson Agboola sparkles as the baby-faced Liccle Bit, whose features are endearingly wide open and trusting. It's a measure of his performance that he also suggests how quickly Liccle Bit could become another sort of child, had a different path been taken. Maddox struggles to sustain a coherent panorama of estate life across 10 episodes – chapters devoted to periods or to Saira's experiences in Syria feel a bit shoehorned in – while the gang culture backstory, which involves a murder in a nightclub, conversely feels squashed. But if Adolescence is essential watching for parents, then Crongton is a pretty good equivalent for their offspring: a fizzing drama about choice and responsibility in which the kids might – just might – turn out alright.
The Guardian
24-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
No adults allowed! Crongton, the joyous show for teens that does what Adolescence can't
In a modern academy secondary school in a deprived part of Leeds, adults wrangle a group of children into their places and a hush descends, before a director calls 'Action!' It's a Tuesday in May – but it is not a school day. The kids have come in during the holidays to be extras in a new BBC comedy drama, Crongton, set on a fictional housing estate. The 10-part series, the first episodes of which air this evening, follows Lemar 'Liccle Bit' Jackson (Samson Agboola), a child who, as adults would recognise, is being groomed into joining a gang. But this is nothing like Adolescence, the Netflix drama that has prompted endless debate about society and toxic masculinity. This is a kids' TV programme. Adults are not invited. The show is an adaptation of a hit book series by the lauded novelist Alex Wheatle, who won the Guardian children's fiction prize in 2016 with hissecond Crongton book. The BBC show arrives amid upsetting news for its cast and crew, as it was announced on Friday that Wheatle had died. 'It is with great sadness to inform you that Alex Wheatle, our 'Brixton Bard', sadly passed away on Sunday 16 March 2025 after his fight with prostate cancer,' his family wrote in a statement posted on social media. The series writer, Archie Maddocks, who adapted the bestselling novels, says the books are darker and grittier than the screen version. It might be a softer version of the story, with bright colours and upbeat music, but the themes need to be hard-hitting to reach children in the digital age, he says. 'The kids also know much more about the world than they did when I was younger because they've got social media,' says Maddocks, a comedian who also plays a teacher in the show. He says Crongton's job, as well as to entertain, is to reflect the realities of children's lives. 'It's a good way to get that message through without going, 'The world is so dangerous. Don't do this, don't do that,'' he says. 'Because I don't think kids hear that. You give them room to work out their own conclusions. That's a better way of teaching lessons.' The show uses a mix of live action and animation to help interpret situations characters find themselves exposed to. Some of them see in cartoons, others in 1940s film noir, while one girl, a wannabe dancer, sees characters dancing instead of fighting. The young cast, some of whom were found during an open casting call for people with no acting experience, echoes what Maddocks says. 'It manages to cover different themes while also being funny,' says Seyi Andes-Pelumi, who plays Liccle Bit's friend Rapid. Another young cast member, Noah Cox, who plays McKay in his first TV role, says: 'It's realistic, like people can relate to it.' At the real-life school in Burmantofts where the series is filmed, 70% of the children speak English as a second language. It is in the most deprived ward in Leeds and one of the most deprived in England. For the children here, the themes are a reality. Liccle Bit's multigenerational household, with a busy mother working to keep a roof over the family's head, is normal. 'Life is about choices, and if you make the wrong choice, it might come back to haunt you,' Liccle Bit says in the trailer, as we see the character offered money to do a favour for a gangster. Kelle Bryan, who rose to fame in the girl group Eternal, plays a family member of Liccle Bit's, and says she was drawn to the show because of its potential to make a difference. 'I took the job because I'm an advocate for social change and I really think this job is at the forefront of that,' she says. 'These stories are critical for instigating change and getting in at a point where we can make those changes. 'I think by the time they've got to 18, we've lost our young people. And the time we influence them is at the beginning of things – so while they're at school, while they're in education – and we've got more adult control at those points where parentally you're in control of the dos and don'ts, where we've got more of a say in what that child can and can't do. 'I think programmes like Crongton really seep into the psyche of younger people, especially at that critical stage, at 12 or 13, where it's pre-adult and they're starting to make decisions that can take their life in one direction or another.' Bryan works with different knife-crime charities, including the Ben Kinsella Trust, named after a 16-year-old Islington boy who was stabbed to death by older teenagers in an unprovoked attack in 2008. The charity, set up by his sister Brooke Kinsella, the EastEnders actor, campaigns to end knife crime in the UK, a problem that is increasing. Bryan says it is 'vital' that stories like this are being told. 'There isn't anything like it at the moment on television,' she says. 'It's got real credible heart to it. It's told truthfully, so it's not been sterilised for television.' She says the show harnesses the 'adult voice' in young people's heads, 'where you kind of go 'Mum wouldn't like it if I was doing this, but I'm gonna do it anyway'. 'He makes one decision. And he ends up down this pathway. And then when you look back on it, you can see it started then. This is how we ended up here. And that's what's important for children to see.' It is not an abstract story for Bryan. Her cousin was also killed in a knife crime. 'He went to the shop to pick up the takeaway – it wasn't even a chicken shop because chicken shops are stereotypically where black people are supposed to hang out, and I'm absolutely against that stereotype – so he'd gone to collect his takeaway, and he never came home,' she says. 'He was a teen that never came home. I'm a living witness of the after-effects that have plagued that family and are still plaguing it today. Whatever I can do to shed light and change the narrative, I'm on board.' Crongton is on BBC iPlayer now.
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
UK Presenter Davina McCall Breaks Down Live On BBC Remembering Brain Tumour Surgery
Davina McCall was moved to tears live on TV Friday evening as she remembered undergoing recent brain tumour surgery. The UK presenter reflected on the experience as a presenter on the BBC's Comic Relief programme, an annual evening of live TV on BBC One which raises money for charity. More from Deadline Major UK Drama Antitrust Probe Dropped; BBC & Others Fined $5.4M For Colluding Over Crew Pay In Sports Production Alex Wheatle Dies: 'Crongton' Author Who Inspired 'Small Axe' Film Was 62 Eddie Jordan Dies: BBC Racing Commentator Was 76 McCall underwent an operation to remove a colloid cyst four months ago, and Friday evening she said: 'Doctors found a brain tumour and after thinking about it for a while I decided it would be best to have it removed.' At this point, she struggled to compose herself, with camera crew pausing to ask if she was okay able to carry on speaking. McCall said: 'This whole experience, kind of weighing up all the risks and all the positive things about having this tumour removed made me really think deeply about what life is really about and what matters when life gets tough. 'I needed the brilliance and the skills of lots of experts to make me okay. And oh my goodness, I've needed the love and support of friends and my family, and in particular, my Michael to get me through. 'It really made me think that there are so many people who are in trouble and danger and they don't have the support that I had. I was really lucky.' McCall underwent a six-hour operation back in November to remove the 14mm benign cyst from her brain. Prior to surgery, the presenter shared the news on Instagram, telling her followers: 'It needs to come out because if it grows, it would be bad.' Best of Deadline How To Watch 'Wicked: Part One': Is The Film Streaming Yet? All The Songs In 'Severance' Season 2: From The Who To Ella Fitzgerald 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
Yahoo
22-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
UK Presenter Davina McCall Breaks Down Live On BBC Remembering Brain Tumour Surgery
Davina McCall was moved to tears live on TV Friday evening as she remembered undergoing recent brain tumour surgery. The UK presenter reflected on the experience as a presenter on the BBC's Comic Relief programme, an annual evening of live TV on BBC One which raises money for charity. More from Deadline Major UK Drama Antitrust Probe Dropped; BBC & Others Fined $5.4M For Colluding Over Crew Pay In Sports Production Alex Wheatle Dies: 'Crongton' Author Who Inspired 'Small Axe' Film Was 62 Eddie Jordan Dies: BBC Racing Commentator Was 76 McCall underwent an operation to remove a colloid cyst four months ago, and Friday evening she said: 'Doctors found a brain tumour and after thinking about it for a while I decided it would be best to have it removed.' At this point, she struggled to compose herself, with camera crew pausing to ask if she was okay able to carry on speaking. McCall said: 'This whole experience, kind of weighing up all the risks and all the positive things about having this tumour removed made me really think deeply about what life is really about and what matters when life gets tough. 'I needed the brilliance and the skills of lots of experts to make me okay. And oh my goodness, I've needed the love and support of friends and my family, and in particular, my Michael to get me through. 'It really made me think that there are so many people who are in trouble and danger and they don't have the support that I had. I was really lucky.' McCall underwent a six-hour operation back in November to remove the 14mm benign cyst from her brain. Prior to surgery, the presenter shared the news on Instagram, telling her followers: 'It needs to come out because if it grows, it would be bad.' Best of Deadline How To Watch 'Wicked: Part One': Is The Film Streaming Yet? All The Songs In 'Severance' Season 2: From The Who To Ella Fitzgerald 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery
