- [Narrator] Everyone around here thinks they're a big man.
Everyone wants to be a top boy.
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] I know London,
people pay a lot of money to get high.
Dark, white, weed, all of that.
Do you get me?
- When we did Top Boy before, it had huge
critical acclaim, it was loved.
(upbeat music)
- When Top Boy seasons one and two came out,
I was in school.
- Absolutely fell in love with it.
- It's something that everyone watches.
- You go in to school the next day and it's like,
"Aw, did you watch last night's episode of Top Boy?"
(upbeat music)
- As a writer, you learn to kind of roll
with the blows a bit,
if a show doesn't get made, or a show gets canceled
you shrug and you move onto the next one.
But I felt really bad about this one.
- I can't even put petrol in the car without
someone saying, "yo, are you gonna do a third one?"
And it's just like "oh my god!"
(music)
- For years, I just remember like watching television
and whatever and watching shows
and not seeing yourself, do you know what I'm saying?
Maybe when a person of color was on the TV
you'd scream upstairs like, "Yo, someone's on TV! Like yo!"
Everyone run downstairs, watch that character,
see what they're saying.
(music)
- [Kane 'Kano' Robinson] He was a fan of the show
when it first came out and was public about that,
posting it on his social media.
- [Ronan Bennett] He was just magnificent,
he loved the show, he just wanted to do whatever he could.
- [Kane 'Kano' Robinson] Didn't really seem like
no ego about it, it wasn't about what this show
can do for me, it was about like how could I
how could I help assist this show.
(music)
- He also did the bulk of the pitch to Netflix
and I hardly had to say anything,
and that was fantastic.
- [Drake] I just want to express how happy this room
makes me right here, you know.
The show meant the world to me, I wish you the best.
(noise from a crowd)
(music)
- Ronan's writing set the pace and it's kind of
a continuation of his style I suppose.
So what we're gonna do is create a show,
essentially the same show that we would have created before,
but it's now in a climate where
everyone is gonna be able to consume it.
(music)
- [Ashley Walters] Dushane engineers a situation to get him
back on top, kind of touching down in London
he realizes everything's changed.
The youngers have become the olders,
the youngers have got younger,
and it's just a different world.
(music)
- It's all about Jamie when Dushane comes back, he's no one.
- [Narrator] Things have changed,
I'm running the first line.
(music)
- [Ronan Bennett] We didn't go out to stars,
a very high proportion of our actors
are first time actors, from similar backgrounds.
- [Narrator] The criteria is, do they feel authentic?
Do we believe they come from those streets?
- [Ashley 'Bashy' Thomas] I have family members and friends
come from this world and a lot of the people
who are in the production grew up around that world,
so we've got a responsibility to tell these
stories authentically.
- Acting for people where I'm from doesn't feel like
a real thing and it never actually clicked
that you can go out and do this type of thing
until like I saw people really breaking down barriers.
(music)
- [Ashley Walters] We're shooting at the places where
this stuff goes down, we were filming on a estate
where you know the local guys that were dealing
couldn't deal because we were shooting,
so they're were asking like, "we need money".
(music)
- [David 'Dave' Omoregie] Top Boy is the most genuine,
raw depiction of life in South, East, West, North London
so to be a part of it, it feels like you're
being able to tell a story as to where you come from
and what people go through, how life is.
- It has to be as real as possible, I feel,
that's why people love this so much,
because it was so real.
- [Ashley Walters] You know the vibe is nothing but 100%
authenticity.
(music)
- [Charles Steel] Its strength is it dealing with
universal themes, you know, about family ambition,
where we sit in the world, it thrills and exciting,
but it has huge heart and humanity
and it's about people.
- [Alasdair Flind] What this is, both a rebirth and a new
start because we're making this season for an audience
that's never seen Top Boy,
and we're also making it for the core fans, who love the
show and are familiar with it.
- [Narrator] I'm confident that this is gonna
be like amazing man.
- It's an explosion man, it's gonna be seamless,
it's Top Boy, but just Top Boy at its greatest.
(music)
- [Narrator] If we do this, we're back on top.
What you saying?