When Channel 4 aired the first series of Top Boy over four successive nights in 2011 it felt like something of an aberration. Here was a brilliantly illuminating window on a corner of inner city life, dramatizing a part of Britain that conventional television traditionally ignores. Compelling, believable, impressively visual and all too real, series 1 was reviewed by me earlier here.
Hardly the sort of programme in other words that one normally associates with a station like Channel 4.
But since then, programmes like Southcliffe, the dystopian Utopia, the brilliant French import The Returned (which I reviewed earlier here) and now this, series 2 of Top Boy suggest that Channel 4 might finally be getting some of its mojo back.
It’s pointless trying to talk about Top Boy without comparing it to The Wire. That is manages to stand up to and merit that comparison is remarkable. Even if, for the moment, it doesn’t quite scale those kind of heights. But then again, neither has it so far been given scope to, with just the four episodes per series to play with.
As with all the best drama on television, it’s all down to the writing. Ronan Bennett’s scripts are brilliantly structured and wonderfully nuanced. They’re given life by a collection of remarkable performances from a mixture of veterans and new comers. And once again the direction is notable for its sense of style and grandeur as much for its gritty realism. And the whole thing is given a wonderful sheen thanks to Brian Eno’s quietly menacing score.
Series two has just begun on Channel 4. Watch it. This is the best and the most important drama produced for television on these islands this decade.
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