Rappers Ashley Walters, Kano and Scorcher are set to star in Channel 4’s upcoming four-part drama Top Boy alongside Kierston Wareing (It’s A Free World) and Geoff Bell…
The drama begins later this October and will explore the lives of young adults and teens caught up in the life threatening gang culture that still remains an issue in London today. We are introduced to Dushane (Ashley Walters) who gets the attention of ex-convict and drug dealer Bobby Raikes (Geoff Bell) and uses his charming ways as an opportunity to become more than just a gang leader, but a “top boy” in the Summerhouse Estate. The story line becomes even more intense when Dushane and Sully (Kano) later embark on a violent quest to run the drugs game in their area which lures in a very curious 13 year old Ra’Nell (Malcolm Kamulete) who decides he desperately wants to be in the gang. The young boy struggles to create a stable environment for his mentally ill mother whilst his best friend Gem will do anything to also be accepted into the gang…
Top Boy is based on months of research by writer Ronan Bennett who grew up in Hackney, alongside story consultant Gerry Jackson. Jackson was born and raised in Hackney and has worked with the young people there to keep them on the right track and help them avoid the drug and gang culture. Many young people were willing to give accounts of their lives growing up which inspired the script written for this drama.
Writer Ronan Bennett says: “I knew that I wanted to write about this world from the bottom up, from the point of view, not of the police but of the tinies and youngers I saw every day hanging around the supermarker forecourt. So I asked Gerry if he would introduce me to kids on the street…I came to realise that the lives I was glimpsing on the supermarket forecourt were a lot more complex, deep and richer than I’d imagined. I wanted Top Boy to look at the fabric of life in a world we hear a lot about, but which we know a lot less than we think.”
Top Boy begins on Channel 4 on 31st October
Words: Melissa Erasia http://twitter.com/MelissaErasia
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