Champion Versions:Champion.

"Stay in your lane" - Bosco

"I ain't staying in any lane. I'm gonna swerve right into yours" - Vita

I really enjoyed each and every episode of Champion (BBC1/iPlayer, created and written by Candice Carty-Williams and directed by, take a deep breath, John Ogunmiyiwa, Christiana Ebohon-Green, Caleb Femi, Adeyemi Michael). Not only was it refreshing to see a primarily black talent led drama occupying the Saturday night prime time schedules on BBC1, it was also very satisfying that much of the action was set in locations very near to my home. You don't see Lewisham DLR station on television much.

But, of course, all of that would have been irrelevant if Champion wasn't a fantastic watch. Which it was. The story revolves around the Champion family. Son Bosco (Malcolm Kamulete) is a successful rapper making a comeback after a spell in prison. But he's suffering from imposter syndrome and having panic attacks.

Vita (Deja J Bowens) is Bosco's helpful, supportive, sister. She's talented too, she can sing and she can write (she actually writes Bosco's bars for him but that's not common knowledge - at first) but she's frustrated that she's not able to express her creativity. Her family revolves around Bosco and Vita's own attempts at a music career are neither taken seriously nor encouraged. In fact, they're actively discouraged.

She's fed up of being treated like a skivvy, she's fed up of Bosco always coming first, and when she tries (and fails) to become Bosco's manager it's the final straw and she looks to Bosco's rival Bulla (Corey Weekes) for a break. Bosco is already worried that Bulla (who has something of the Stormzy about him but, unlike Stormzy, isn't very nice) has stolen his thunder so won't be happy about Vita working with him. He'll be even less happy when he finds out that Vita is in a secret relationship with his beatmaker, and best friend Memet (Kerim Hassan).

Bosco and Vita's mum, Aria (Nadine Marshall), runs a small restaurant where Vita works and it's clear they both absolutely love her and that they have respect for her partner Lennox (Karl Collins), a quiet well meaning man who treats the kids as if they were his own. Things are a little trickier with their actual father, Beres (Ray Fearon).

Beres, who is not around as much as he should be, has a lot of unpleasant traits and he seems to believe he is the custodian of the Champion name and none of his children, none of his family, should deviate from what he perceives to be the proud Champion tradition. One that seems to involve never showing emotion and never talking about your feelings.

Predictably, this causes problems for all around him and Bosco, it seems - at first, has inherited some of Beres' less appealing characteristics. On top of his mental problems, Bosco's got issues with money and bailiffs, and he's often in trouble with the police. We see him arrested by some particularly heavy handed 'feds' at his own birthday BBQ.

He loves his young, and absolutely adorable, daughter Milan (Olivia-Rose Colliard) but he's no longer with her mother Chantelle (Adeyinka Akinrinade) who, despite clearly still having feelings for Bosco, is now with record company guy Mark (Tom Forbes). To complicate things further Mark, a self-styled Svengali figure, takes Vita under his wing but when he tries to get her to sing songs about dancing in her underwear and present her as sexually available, she rejects that image completely.

It's not her at all and she's very upfront about it. DJ and sound engineer Laurent (Francis Lovehall) is far more supportive of Vita and soon starts to work, and sleep,with her. But as fame and critical acclaim come Vita's way, she's still feeling lonely and isolated despite being surrounded by people. She misses her brother Bosco and she misses her friend Honey (Ray BLK). Vita and Honey had always sung together but Mark only wanted to sign Vita.

Honey, who makes ends meet hairdressing, eventually does her own thing but she's still carrying a torch for her old flame Tayo (Genesis Lynea). Tayo, though, has hooked up with Yemi (Rachel Adedeji) and Yemi has become Vita's manager. There are a lot of convenient coincidences in Champion but that helps, rather than hinders, the action and how you relate to it. Go with it.

As Vita's star rises, Bosco enters a downward spiral that, at times, looks inexorable (and involves a lot of heavies in hi-viz jackets). The Champion family, and most everyone else in their circle, are really put through the wringer. There are car crashes, fights, cut throat record company dudes who treat people as products, "oustide picnics", adultery, multiple missed (or rejected) phone calls, fashion shows, private gigs for daughters of Tory MPs, secrets and lies (deeply hidden lies), and long held familial resentments and there's a trip to Jamaica where some of the Champions learn more about their lives from Aunt Sissy (Natalie Thompson) and Beres' much younger brother Junior (Alexander James-Blake).

Family members who have their own issues and resentments. The trip to Jamaica, and Beres' radio show, gives the makers a chance to showcase some great reggae tunes (Bob Marley, Sister Nancy, Ken Boothe, Chi Ching Ching, and Pamputtae) but there's also some garage and pop classics from the likes of So Solid Crew, Dj Pied Piper, Sweet Female Attitude, Sugababes, and Craig David featured.

Then there's Bosco's, Vita's, and Bulla's music which always sounds both authentic and of a high quality. Some of the musical set pieces, MC battles etc;, are absolutely joyous though other scenes, especially those of heartbreak and betrayal (on multiple levels), can be tough to watch. Things get very heated, they get very emotional, and it's always hard to watch a group of essentially good people who love each other hurting each other through their own insecurities or own histories.

There are some interesting observations on generational shift. The older Champions like reggae, the younger Champions like hip-hop, grime, and drill. The oldies keep everything bottled up and the youngsters let it all come flooding out into a world that looks very recognisable to someone like myself who has been a proud South Londoner for over twenty-seven years.

There's Red Stripe, dominoes, curried goat, social media obsession, North Face jackets, carrot cakes, and Supermalt and there's a backdrop of highly familiar London locations from Oxford Circus and Brick Lane to Battersea Power Station, and the Crystal Palace Tower and on to less celebrated parts of London like Lee and Hither Green. There's even a 185 bus and, of course, a scene filmed outside a branch of Morley's.

The story is brilliant and every performance in it is fantastic (shout outs to Jo Martin as Bosco's "useless" manager Dawn and Fergus Rees as merciless record company executive Philip, a man whose ideas are as poor as his morals) but the best performances of all belong to Kamulete as Bosco and Deja J Bowens (as Vita) in what, quite incredibly, is her television debut. It certainly won't be the last we see of her. Towards the end of Champion, during a particularly emotional familial reveal, a chill went up my back and it stayed with me for a long time. Champion will stay with me for a long time too though I've got a sneaking feeling it'll be back for a second series soon.