Blog

Top Boy – Who came out on top?

Monday 7th November 2011

With scenes of gruesome violence, heightened emotion and thought provocation, Channel 4’s drama Top Boy introduced a mainly fatherless community of school children, some as young as 10 years old, entangled in gangs and drugs.

Money was the motive and drugs – or “food” – the means to a decent life. Money was portrayed as a solution whenever things went horribly wrong and taboo if a handout’s refused.

In the first episode, drug dealer Dushane, played by Ashley Walters, told drug lord Kaines: “I want a good life… I ain’t got nothing else to be except this.”

A preview of the drama shown to Hackney locals aged 10 to 26 and reported in the Guardian criticized the film for being a far cry from reality at many points. The main flaw seemed to be the lack of featured “feds”, or police.

“Every day you get stopped and searched by feds. You can’t even stand on a street corner round this estate,” said a 21-year old member of the previewing audience.

Places of authority were shown positively – such as the school, where a teacher was punched in the face for intervening when a pupil was hassled by a gangster. The scene was reminiscent of London’s St George’s School head teacher Philip Lawrence, who lost his life trying to save a student in 1995.

But the sidelining of institutions may have been a deliberate attempt to show them as distant do-gooders who attempt to solve intricate problems on the surface without much understanding about their roots.

That’s where Leap steps in, to try and understand where these young people have come from, where they are going and why they have lost direction. What is missing to make them turn to gangs for a false sense of belonging and security, and which leads to a bleak future that spreads through generations like an inherent disease?

Ra’nell, played by Malcolm Kamulete, stole the show as the Top Boy – a strong-hearted youth intensely loyal to his mother. Leap aims to harness these positive qualities so young people can run their own lives.

Top Boy is still available to watch on 4OD. Visit www.channel4.com

By Monica Sarkar
Visit Monica Sarkar’s blog: http://missinterpreting.com