Plot thickens in second series of Channel 4’s urban saga Top Boy
Mayor Jules Pipe refused to allow show’s producers to film on Hackney estates, but that hasn’t prevented them creating ‘damn good drama’
Television
Body found in canal is EastEnders actor Gemma McCluskie
Police confirm that torso discovered in Regent’s canal in east London is that of actor who went missing last week
Channel 4’s Top Boy lands second series
East London gang drama starring Ashley Walters will return next year
Top Boy is the real deal
I thought this TV series set in Hackney – where I grew up – might be another cliched urban drama. It rose far above that
Top Boy gets a mixed reception from Hackney’s youth
A panel of locals enjoys a preview of the Channel 4 drama’s first episode, but finds plenty of flaws in Ronan Bennett’s supposedly realistic portrayal of life in the borough
Top boy: stories of Hackney’s young drug dealers
Ronan Bennett spent two years interviewing gang members in east London for his powerfully personal TV drama, Top Boy. Here he describes their hidden, hopeless world – and the lengths they’ll go to escape from it
Frustration fallout after EastEnders declines Olympic Park move
The BBC’s decision not to move the production base of its flagship soap to the Games broadcast centre makes the job of filling that space in the long term more difficult
Jewish schools are not a faith school ‘menace’
My local Jewish primary is multicultural and academically excellent, and shows Dawkins is wrong about faith schools