The bestselling author and former children’s laureate Malorie Blackman has said she hopes the forthcoming BBC adaptation of her critically acclaimed series Noughts and Crosses will open up a more nuanced debate on race in the UK.

With the subject permeating the critically acclaimed dystopian fiction series, Blackman, 58, told Radio Times the TV adaptation was being released at a time when it could make a bigger impact than when it was first announced four years ago.

“Now, there’s the realisation that diverse stories do make money, like the films Black Panther and Hidden Figures – it would once have been much harder to get them off the ground.

“There’s an audience desperate for new content and new voices and I think a lot of people are waking up to that.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Sephy Hadley (Masali Baduza) and Callum McGregor (Jack Rowan) in the adaptation of Noughts and Crosses. Photograph: Ilze Kitshoff/BBC/Mammoth Screen

In the opening episode of the series, where Europe has been colonised by Africa and the ruling classes (the Crosses) are black and the white population (the Noughts) are the slaves, the white characters’ names are mispronounced, plasters are dark brown and white people serve people of colour at a party.

“It’s all based on true stuff,” said Blackman, who was told at school that black people did not go to university and often wondered as a youngster why plasters were only ever pink.

“The things he [Callum] goes through particularly in school happened to me, like asking my teachers where the black scientists were on the curriculum and being told there weren’t any. Or my first time in first class on a train and being accused of stealing the ticket.”

The London-born author, whose parents came from Barbados, rejected Laurence Fox’s claim that the term “white privilege” was racist, saying it did not erase the experiences of white people in the world who are struggling.

“Of course it doesn’t mean that, it just means that one of the things you are being judged on is not your skin colour. In my life when I’ve flown, only once in the last 40 years have I not been called over by customs to search my bags.”

She revealed she had made a note of all the headlines comparing Kate Middleton to Meghan Markle and was frustrated and saddened at denials that race has played a part in the media’s differential treatment of the Duchess of Sussex.

When Kate was pregnant she was “tenderly touching her baby bump”, she said, “but when Meghan did it, she was ‘just doing it for attention’. Kate wore an off-the-shoulder dress to an event and was described as stunning, but when Meghan wore one – and as far as I could see the only difference was the colour [of the dress] – she was called vulgar … It was nasty.”

Asked her thoughts on racial fluidity and whether somebody could just “feel black”, she said: “It’s a tricky one. I believe in gender fluidity and that you can be born in the wrong body. With race, you can admire someone’s culture, but if you’re not born into it …

“Can I, for example, just turn around and say I am an Inuit because that’s how I want to identify? There’s more to it than that, it’s about being brought up in the culture. It’s an interesting thing to explore, maybe I’ll try and write a story about it!”

Blackman’s autobiography is due to be published by #Merky Books, founded by Stormzy, who has a cameo in the series. In one episode he plays a newspaper editor, a role created especially for him.

She felt positive that sensibilities like colour-blind casting in TV and film were beginning to catch up with the times. “That’s why I loved the recent BBC adaptation of A Christmas Carol when Mary Cratchit was played by Vinette Robinson.

“Some people complained that a woman of colour was playing her – they had no problems when Miss Piggy played the part though, did they?”