Omari Douglas plays defiance as something a character has to keep up rather than something he has. In It's a Sin every joke Roscoe made was a defence, and Douglas let us see both the joke and the reason for it at once.
Fi1m perspective
Roscoe Babatunde arrives in It's a Sin with the best lines in the flat, and Omari Douglas says every one of them as if it were a wall he is putting up. That is the trick of the performance and the reason it stays with you. The jokes are funny; they are also what Roscoe has instead of protection, and Douglas lets us see both at once without ever pointing at the second. The clothes do the same work. Roscoe dresses for the eighties like a man daring the street to say something, and Douglas wears it as if it had been his own idea.
We laughed at Roscoe more than at anyone else in that flat, and more than once we caught ourselves working out what the laughter was for, which is the difference between a comic turn and a performance. Douglas has described the character as "fiercely proud and fiercely out", and the pride is the interesting part. He plays it as a decision, renewed daily, not a settled fact. When the series asks the flat to grieve, he is spared none of it, and he does not flinch.
It was a first television part, which is worth remembering. Douglas trained in musical theatre and spent his early career on stage, in High Society, Wise Children, Jesus Christ Superstar and Tristan & Yseult, and has worked three times with the director Emma Rice. You can see the training in how he moves, which is more expressive than most screen actors allow themselves and never looks like showing off. Since Russell T Davies's series he has kept a foot in each world: Constellations (2021) opposite Russell Tovey, Clifford Bradshaw in the Cabaret revival (2021–22) and A Little Life (2023) on stage; I Hate Suzie Too (2022), Rye Lane (2023), Nolly (2023) for Davies again, and Black Doves (2024), a spy thriller, on screen. We have not reviewed those and will not judge them here.
The reservation is a small one and it is about casting rather than acting. The parts that have come his way so far tend to be bold, defiant, queer and set in a period, and he is plainly good at them. What we would like to see, and what the more recent screen work may be starting to offer, is a part that does not ask him to be the loudest person in any scene, so we can find out what he does with quiet. Colin was the surprise of It's a Sin; we suspect Douglas could play a Colin if anyone asked him to, and we would like someone to ask.
For now, start with Roscoe. Watch him land a line, and then ask yourself who the line was really for.
Biography
Omari Douglas is an English actor. Born on 24 March 1994 in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, he trained at the Arts Educational Schools in London, graduating in 2015. He began his career in theatre with roles in productions including High Society, Wise Children and Jesus Christ Superstar.
Douglas is known for playing Roscoe Babatunde in the Channel 4 series It's a Sin (2021). Subsequent screen credits include the film Rye Lane (2023) and the Netflix series Black Doves (2024). He has received nominations for a British Academy Television Award for It's a Sin and a Laurence Olivier Award for his performance in Constellations.
