‘We have to maintain that essence of what the show has always been’
London-set crime drama Top Boy is back with a global audience on Netflix, writes Abi Jackson
Whenever you put atvshowoutin the world, obviously you hope people like it. But what if they really like it – and then there’s an epic six then three-year gap between series. Is that a lot of pressure?
“Yes,” says Ashley Walters, who plays Top Boy’s co-lead Dushane. “Good pressure. It keeps us in check and reminds us we have a job to do, that we have to maintain that essence and core of what the show has always been.
“That’s the beauty of it,” adds Walters, 39. “If we don’t try and fix it – because it’s never been broken – we’re in a good place. The minute we start to get these extra ideas of, you know, it’s global now and it needs to be this and that, that’s where things are probably gonna go wrong.”
That ‘essence’ is no doubt key to Top Boy’s success. The series, created by Ronan Bennett, started life on Channel 4 back in 2011, as a gritty four-part crime-drama based on fictional east London housing estate Summerhouse, where a schoolboy gets caught up with the dark and violent worlds of drug dealer crew leaders Dushane (Walters) and Sully (rapper and grime artist Kane ‘Kano’ Robinson). Series two followed in 2013, with rivalries and relationships adding to the mix. Top Boy was a cult hit – but then Channel 4 dropped it.
Gripped by the show’s frank depictions and realfeeling storytelling, fans had no idea whether there’d be more to come. It was a long wait before Top Boy was reborn on Netflix in 2019, this time as a 10-parter – thanks in no small part to some celebrity backing from Canadian rapper Drake, who helped convince Netflix to commission it, at the same time becoming an executive producer. Now, another three years on, it’s back again.
Maintaining that quality and authenticity is something everyone involved seems to value closely. Top Boy is staying true to its roots – but there will, of course, be new developments in store. Moving to Netflix has also shown that the series isn’t just relatable to Londoners.
“It’s mad to think of the global reach it’s now got,” says Michael Ward, who plays rival crew leader Jamie.
Jasmine Jobson, who joined as Dushane’s deputy Jaq when the show moved to Netflix, agrees all this comes with a “bit of pressure”.
“Obviously [fans] expect a certain standard from us,” says Jobson, 26. “But at the same time, with the fact we’ve been fans of Top Boy from such a young age, we would expect nothing less, and we would expect nothing less of ourselves.”
Jobson is far from alone in growing up as a Top Boy fan. “I was such a massive fan,” says Saffron Hocking, 28, who plays Jaq’s sister Lauryn. “I actually remember exactly where I was when I heard the show was being brought back. I was sat in the car with my friend, and we suddenly read this article about Drake reviving Top Boy. I looked at her, and I remember saying, ‘I’m going to be in that, I really want to be in that, I’m going to be in it’. And yeah, I end up being in it.”
Sonica 2022, Tramway, Glasgow ✪✪✪✪
It might have been joy at Glasgow’s international festival of sound art and visual music finally returning in live form, but there was a sense of childlike wonder to some of the opening events of Sonica 2022.
It was there, undeniably, among the festival’s installations – certainly the interactive cone of light that caressed sound from in Louis-philippe Rondeau’s Dan Flavin-like Lux aeterna at the Lighthouse, and also the playful, touch-triggered explosions of music and colour in Mathieu Le Sourd’s Bloom at the CCA.
More monumental, though, was Guillaume Cousin’s Soudain toujours, also at the CCA, a vast contraption devoted to emitting wisps of smoke in a mesmerising display that playfully contrasts its ephemeral product with its vast, buzzing machinery.
One of Sonica’s live events, though, was a bit less successful. It didn’t help that iconic English experimental composer and advertised conductor Gavin Bryars was self-isolating after a positive Covid test, contributing instead over a video link.
But there was a strange sense of restlessness at the RSNO’S concert devoted to his music. Even though last-minute stand-in conductor Robert Baxter did a more than creditable job with the UK premiere of Bryars’ viola concerto A Hut in Toyama – with its dedicatee Morgan Goff as soloist – the performance took a while to settle, lacking the kind of calm, unhurried unfolding that makes Bryars’ music so eloquent. Video artist Alba G Corral’s live contributions were beguilingly complex, but a stronger connection with the music would have made them feel more relevant.
By contrast, the concert opened with a visual-less, conductor-less account of Bryars’ 1970s classic Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, that demonstrated why it’s such an enduring masterpiece.