Abubakar Salim is ready to be the dashing hero of ‘House Of The Dragon’

Abubakar Salim was looking forward to a “really chill” week until he was needed on set. “All I’ll say is it’s Michaela Coel‘s new show,” he confides, before going on to reveal a bit more than he’s probably allowed. Salim has already completed a filming block in Ghana but this week’s shoot is closer to home in east London. “She’s a good mate of mine, I love her to bits,” Salim says of Coel, the BAFTA-winning star and creator of 2020’s savage revenge drama I May Destroy You. “She’s also a force of nature.” READ MORE: The best TV shows of 2026… so far! The two actors met a decade ago when they shared a scene in ‘Nosedive’, a memorable episode of Black Mirror about a young woman obsessed with social media. “Michaela was [playing] ‘Airline Stewardess Number One’ and I was ‘Airport Security Guard Number Two,” Salim recalls. “But since then, she’s done everything. She’s a superstar now.” Salim’s rise has also been impressive – he developed the beautiful BAFTA-winning video game Tales of Kenzera: Zau and now stars in prestige fantasy series House Of The Dragon – but he’s too modest to say so. When we meet at the British Film Institute café in central London, where every other customer is t...