Top Boy, on Channel 4...

[max_tranmere]

I've watched all four epsiodes of this series, the last one was on tonight, and I thought it was well written and well acted. It showed drug-dealing gangsters in the Hackney and London Fields areas of east London, how they tried to get one up on each other, and also the people in the margins who got caught up in it all.

I thought it would get a lot of complaints as it shows numerous young black men as armed drug dealers, although the man who we thought was the top gangster was a white guy, and we learned in episodes 3 and 4 that he was in fact under an even more senior guy, who was an Irishman.

Several people were shot dead in the show, including some innocent's, but one thing the show seemed to strongly convey was the hopelessness of some people's lives in these neighbourhoods - especially the woman with mental health problems who had the teenage son who was caught up in all the drug-dealing/gangster activity.

The council estates shown in the series are so big you can hardly see one end from the other, and they kept showing the skyline of Canary Wharf and The City in the distance, as if to show the contrast between that world compared to the awful world these people lived in.

Did anyone else watch this series and what did you think of it? I thought it was very good.

[one eyed jack]

Don't need to watch it on TV because I know this scenario very well growing up in neighbouring Tottenham

They sold drugs. I sold porn. We're both crack dealers !happy!

It wasn't till years later that black guys hanging out in groups are called gnags but white guys hanging out in groups is hanging with yer mates innit? Then white guys hanging out with blacks is still a gang.

I would say the great thing about that show is that it gets to educate people like yourselves who can sit, observe and be educated and entertained what it is like living in a neigbourhood that is not like yours.

[one eyed jack]

Its not like people aren't given the chances to do better with their lives but most times futures are dictated by the company in which one keeps and there is a strong sense of loyalty with people, especially if the family connection breaks down.

The big difference between getting a beating or having an alcoholic/ drug abusing mother and no father around is being in a crew that could get you shot by rivals. It isnt a game. It is very real.

Kids were getting shot for being in the wrong postcode. Thats how immature the younger lot are and it gets worse if you manage to live until youre older.

Theres a pecking order in all walks of life.

[Jonone]

Sounds like The Wire transposed to the UK.

I watched The Wire, thought it was very good. I also read Sudhir Venkatesh's 'Gangleader For A Day' about Chicago in the 80s which appears to be evident source material for The Wire.

[Jonone]

It's worth checking out the drug dealer chapter in Freakonomics too which is based on Venkatesh's work. I think drug dealing was said to be one of the three most dangerous jobs in the industrialized world.

[one eyed jack]

I think its even more dangerous in Columbia and surrounding countries of South America...You think we got it bad? Sheesh!

[Dace]

I really enjoyed it - best bit of british telly there has been for a while in fact imo

my only complaint was I felt there was one or two too many characters, they had to cram a lot of character development into 4 hour long episodes, I think some of the characters could have been omitted to concentrate on the key characters

thought the love story between the boy with the dog and the girl was very sweet though - brilliantly acted by both of them

[Marino]

Funny you should mention Colombia Terry. I have been there and have many friends out there and remember one night sitting in a restaurant as someone got shot dead outside the door. No one even left their table they just carried on eating.

I also had a time in Northern Ireland when appearing at a club and a bomb scare was announced. We were out in the streets and the locals were going about there evening as if nothing had happened.

Then in thailand when they were building the overpass in Schucamvit 1 (excuse spelling) every night some poor worker fell out of his crows nest thing where they slept on the job many drunk on cheap thai whisky. As they lay in the road the traffic and passers by just went in their way.

No matter where in the world life has become cheap. Unless of course it belongs to you.

[videokim]

It was well written & it showed a real way of life, i grew up in Canning Town (West Ham) & gun crime was there 30 years ago.
I had good friends in the ICF & Upton Park Black Mafia (Jamaican Yardies) who helped out a few times when i was asked to pay protection on my club & fish stalls etc.
I was window cleaning at the Sultan in Grange road once when 3 guys shot the publican in the knees & another time was in the Jubilee Silvertown when again the publican was shot over an argument about his dog...it goes with the turf & you turn a blind eye as long as it don't effect you.
I thought the film "Rise of the foot soldier" was watered down & way off track to the real workings of the ICF & this is maybe because the government can't let the country know there are areas & organized gangs that violent.
Because i grew up there i was used to it & actually enjoyed my life there as money was easy to make & friends were solid & dependable no matter what you done, as bad as it looks it in these dodgy council estates it also as it's plus points.
I made new friends in Salford recently & was amazed at the similarity between there & West Ham in its activities & bonding between its gang members, no matter how much it shocked some people this tv prog showed the real nitty gritty world some of us live in.

[videokim]

Whoops! i meant to write John at the bottom of that in case people think its Kim lol!