Top Boy (2011)

basics...
A four part drama set in the murky world of a London estate, complete with drug dealers, revenge killings and flat-based marijuana farms. It ain't Pride & Prejudice.

brilliant...

I liked Ashley Walters in his brief one-series stint in Hustle a few years ago, and he's part of the reason I was intrigued by Top Boy, spread across 4 nights on Channel 4. The series made a change from the usual detective shows, comedies and American dramas that litter the schedules, and presented a fresh, modern take on the gang and drug culture of some of the dodgier areas of London. Populated with interesting characters who are often only involved in this culture because they see no alternative, Top Boy does little to glamourise the subject. Drug dealing is shown to be cut throat, as well as finger-chopping and chest-burning, and with very little happiness. It was inevitable that some of the characters wouldn't survive the series, but it was never clear which of them would be unlucky enough to make an early exit, and this really heightened the drama. Walters was a part of a largely unknown ensemble of young black actors, and although it's a shame that black casts are reserved for gangland crime dramas (or stereotyped Caribbean natives as in Death in Paradise), at least these characters are sympathetic and human, not mere ciphers.

but...
Ra'Nell, the adolescent who features in one of the main storylines, was a bit dull at times, and his relationship with his troubled mother could have been better explored. Some of the violence was a bit too much as well, although it needed to be to deglamourise it. 

briefly...
A gritty, devasting drama that provides excellent antidote to the Downton mania of recent months.