Dark Money (TV series)

Dark Money (stylized Dark Mon£y) is a 2019 British drama miniseries written by Levi David Addai. The drama deals with the sexual abuse of a minor by a film producer, and the challenges his family faces thereafter when they receive hush money to keep silent. The series was screened in the United States in 2020 by BET+. In 2023, the series was adapted into the Indian Hindi-language series Kafas.

Plot
The family of a sexually abused child accepts hush money from a famous filmmaker to remain silent.

Production
Screenwriter Levi David Addai was inspired to write the miniseries when he was sitting in his car on a Saturday morning, people-watching and waiting for his daughter to finish her drama lesson. He found it interesting that the parents who were kind of offering up their children, and absorbing all the hopes and dreams of what the course leaders and the academy leaders were kind of selling were so trusting of the virtual strangers.

Cast

 * Babou Ceesay as Manny Mensah
 * Jill Halfpenny as Sam Mensah
 * Olive Gray as Jess Mensah
 * Max Fincham as Isaac Mensah
 * Ellen Thomas as Maggie Mensah
 * Susie Wokoma as Sabrina Stevens
 * Tut Nyuot as Tyrone Stevens-Mensah
 * Rudi Dharmalingam as Dominic Nadesan
 * Rebecca Front as Cheryl Denon
 * John Schwab as Jotham Starr
 * Joseph May as Brett Huntley
 * Arnold Oceng as Ryan Osei
 * Lin Blakley as Avril Allen
 * Henry Garrett as Mitch Colney

Critical reception
The Independent gave it four stars, stating that it 'speaks eloquently about the abuse of children by the powerful, how persistent the phenomenon is and how uneven the balance of power between abuser and abused is – and will probably always be, given that so much of it is about money.' The Guardian gave it three stars and called it 'slight', stating that the subject matter was powerful, but its characters were 'not yet fine-grained enough for us to feel their personal agony and loss. Also, the question of what we would do in their situation is too far removed from likelihood to be a compelling draw.'