TV Review: Top Boy (C4)

NO sooner has Ronan Bennett’s enigmatic thriller Hidden ended on BBC1 than he has a new drama series on C4. Top Boy is about children on an impoverished London council estate being drawn into a life of crime.

Bennett has crafted a hard-hitting story inspired by events on the streets of Hackney, where he lives. “Hackney is like much of inner London,” he says.

“There are streets with nice shops, good restaurants and houses for people who are doing well. But turn a corner and you are in a different world: grim, sprawling housing estates where windows are barred, pit bulls are exercised in the courtyards and families struggle to make ends meet. There are guns and knives, and people get killed by both.

“One day coming out of the supermarket I noticed a boy of about 12 – one of the ‘Tinies’, as I later learned they are called – hanging around the forecourt. An older man approached him. They exchanged a few words and briefly shook hands. I just about saw the money passed over.

“The boy slid away. A couple of minutes later a second Tiny came up on a bike and spat something on the ground. The older man stooped to retrieve it and strolled off.

It was a drug deal – five minutes from my home.”

Bennett wanted to know more. He was already thinking about writing about this world, but knew that if he did, “I would want to write about it from the bottom up, from the point of view, not of the police, but of the ‘Tinies’ and ‘Youngers’ hanging around the supermarket forecourt every day.”

Researching the subject, he had help in speaking to those involved in such activities from Gerry Jackson, a Hackney-born fitness coach who’s respected for his efforts to encourage local youngsters to steer clear of drug and gang culture.

“Over the months, with Gerry’s help, I came to realise that the lives I had glimpsed on the supermarket forecourt were more complex, deep and rich than I’d imagined,” explains Bennett.

“‘Just because someone is buying and selling drugs in Hackney’, a detective told me, ‘doesn’t mean they’re bad people.’ In parts of Hackney, dealing drugs is how some people make a living. It’s part of the fabric of life.”

Bennett’s screenplay focuses on 13- year-old Ra’Nell, forced by his mother Lisa’s breakdown to take charge of the household. He’s also asked by his mum’s friend, Heather, to help her carry out a dangerous plan she hopes will give her baby the start in life she never had.

Meanwhile, 26-year-old drug-dealer Dushane leaps at the chance of becoming an important part of a local kingpin’s criminal underworld. He little realises the devastating effect his rise to prominence will have on Ra’Nell, members of his own family, and a young man whose only offence is being related to Dushane’s deadly rival.

Malcolm Kamulete, Kierston Wareing and Ashley Walters head the cast of a series begin stripped across the week, running Monday to Thursday at 10pm.

IT’S Halloween, and for many, that’s an excuse to dress up in silly costumes and behave madly. Nothing wrong with that, but for those who prefer sitting at home being spooked in the comfort of our own armchairs, BBC4 is delivering a few dastardly delights for our delectation.

Later, there’ll be another chance to see last year’s Psychoville Halloween special, followed by the first part of Mark Gatiss’ excellent A History of Horror.

But the evening kicks off with the documentary Andy Hamilton’s Search for Satan, in which the creator of much-loved sitcom Outnumbered, not to mention devil-based Radio 4 sitcom Old Harry’s Games, examines the history of Satanic mythologies before turning his attention to Old Nick’s place in society and culture.

We’re not talking about a necessarily 100 per cent, deadly serious programme, but it does tackle at least one major issue – the presence of evil in the world.