Chewing Gum deserves our attention - review

If life were a sitcom, the scenario would happen in a corner shop just after you've accidentally scrawled pen on your forehead, as happens in the opening episode of series two of the cult hit Chewing Gum (E4).

Chewing Gum review

A slice of working-class urban life is shoved rudely, and gloriously, in your face.

A very welcome return for Michaela Coel's warm and brilliantly funny comedy, full of outlandish yet relatable dramas, and helmed by a black, British, working-class hero, played by Coel herself. This opener is called WTF Happened?, a question viewers will surely ponder: lovebirds Tracey and Connor have broken up for reasons neither are entirely clear on, and Connor's already moved on. Cue a characteristically ill-thought-out bit of scheming from Trace.

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Chewing Gum is as rude, tender and funny as ever

This half-hour episode is wrought with such care, attention and emotional nuance it could have been expanded into a play (let's not forget that the germ of the series came from Coel's National Theatre hit, Chewing Gum Dreams); there really is not a line out of place.

Michaela Coel interview

As the TV comedy returns for a second series, its Bafta-winning creator talks about bullying, evangelical Christianity, and how she ended up in a sex club.

At the Baftas last year, the Beyoncé-loving acting-and-writing sensation Michaela Coel accepted her award for best female comedy performance wearing a gown her mum made - then gave a speech thanking her hero, Victoria Wood, and encouraging black women to embrace their comedy, their beauty and the power of their voices. Coel has certainly found hers: there's nothing else like Chewing Gum. Set on a council estate, it stars Coel as the naive Tracey, who falls in love with a white boy called Connor, then gets kicked out of her strict mum's house. At series end, the pair were wandering off across the estate, in their pants, carrying binbags full of their belongings. You should watch this show.