Top boy presentation on genre and themes

1. TOP BOY
DIRECTED BY, YANN DEMANGE AND JOHN
VAN TULLEKEN

2. SUMMARY
Top boy is a gritty crime drama, set in East London, Hackney.
It portrays life as a struggle for not only the people involved
in drug dealing and gangs but also the people trying to keep
their businesses running. Everyone is aware of the drug
dealing ring and it almost affects everyone around it. Some
kids get sucked into it but Ra’nel one of the main characters,
a school boy, is smart enough to avoid the whole thing as he
knows what it would bring.

3. INTERVIEW WITH ONE
OF THE DIRECTORS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6gHTTNoM4s
In this interview he talks about the main messages behind
the TV series and the support he gained over the time of
filming.
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/top-boy/
videos/all/writer-ronan-bennett
Interview with the writer and creator about the inspiration
behind top boy.

4. THEMES IN THE
PROGRAMME
There are various themes that make up the genre of the
programme.
- Drugs
- Violence
- Gangs
- Sex
- Wealth
- Businesses
- Family
- All of these themes make it a gritty crime drama.

5. ARE THE THEMES
TYPICAL OF THE GENRE?
These themes are typical of the genre as they all add up to
make the genre. There are a lot of things that come from a
different point of view which changes up the genre at points.
As it focuses on various other struggles not only the gang.
It also changes as we are for once not on the side of the
police. Normally in crime dramas we’re following it form the
side of the police, but in this we seem to side with the gangs
however gruesome the things they do are.

6. TARGET AUDIENCE
The target audience is really teenagers or young adults. It
would definitely have an age rating of either 18 or 15.
The directors say that one of the messages behind top boy is
that getting involved in drug dealing is bad. Although we
seem to side with the gang against police etc. We all know
they are not the good guys.
The good guys are the ones on the estate that don’t get
involved with the gang.

7. SUMMARY OF KEY
POINTS
- Drug dealing is not a good thing and it only leads to
further hardships
- Gangs affect everyone that lives on the estate
- Kids get drawn into drug dealing gangs too easily
- Everybody is struggling. Some people do it inside the law
- Kids dealing with mothers being drug addicts and
basically being homeless