Urban landscape gets Top Boy touch

8 August 2013

Top Boy stars Ashley Walters and Kane Robinson have become part of Hackney’s urban landscape for one month only, in a piece of graffiti created by South London artists BEST | EVER to mark the return of the BAFTA-nominated drama on Channel 4 later this month (20 August).

Created and written by novelist and screenwriter Ronan Bennett, a Hackney resident himself, the second series of Top Boy takes us back into the estates and streets of east London. 

The graffiti artwork is roughly five metres square and took two days to complete. The artists blacked out the site then used acrylic spray paint to create the piece, with pictures of Kane and Ashley for reference.

“We wanted to create a work of art in heart of the borough where the idea for the award-winning drama was conceived. The urban landscape is such an integral part of Top Boy’s world that it seemed fitting, in turn, to make the stars of Top Boy part of the urban landscape in Hackney. We hope that the graffiti portraits will help to create an identity and excitement in the run-up to series two,” says Channel 4’s picture publicist Rebecca Allin, who commissioned the piece in collaboration with Channel 4’s Marketing Department.

Ashley Walters says of the artwork: "London without graffiti would be like Paris without the Arc de Triomphe! What better way to promote the new series of Top Boy than this great piece of art situated in the area the show is set in. We're back! Enjoy it!"

Louis Jensen of BEST | EVER said of working with Channel 4, “I have worked in Alternative Outdoor Media for some time, generating campaigns with the help of street artists. The dream was to change the advertising landscape and simultaneously create a public gallery of artists' works. Channel 4 gave us the creative freedom with Top Boy's Ashley and Kane graffiti to really express our work. ”

As well as the graffiti wall, the Top Boy campaign has included a high-profile BFI screening with cast, a competition featuring Kane called “Your Cut” (*for more information on the “Your Cut” competition, see notes to editors) which encouraged fans to make and submit their own music videos, with four being chosen to air after each episode of Top Boy and a PR campaign by tpr media consultants, who also promoted series one. The campaign also consists of a conceptual on air trail and posters from Channel 4’s in house creative agency 4Creative starring Ashley Walters as Dushane.

Thrilling, raw, frightening, sad, hopeful and surprisingly funny by turn, Top Boy is an honest and gripping rendition of inner-city life set in a world we think we know, but rarely see or understand. Top Boy stars Ashley Walters (Dushane), Kane Robinson (Sully), Sharon Duncan-Brewster (Lisa), as well as an ensemble cast of new talent including Giacomo Mancini (Gem), Malcolm Kamulete (Ra’Nell) and Shone Romulus (Dris).

NOTES TO EDITORS

BEST | EVER are two like-minded painters from South London by way of the south coast. Since meeting in late 2008, the pair has developed a style that combines traditional painterly techniques with intricate aerosol realism. Influenced as much by Schiele and Klimt as by their combined experience as graffiti writers, BEST | EVER execute sensitive subject matters such as death, disease and mental illness with soul and wisdom that belies their youth.

* Your Cut

As part of the wider Top Boy 2 campaign Channel 4 Marketing and youth engagement agency Livity created Your Cut, a competition aimed at aspiring producers, filmmakers, musicians and Top Boy fans which has been trailed on Channel 4 and fronted by star of the show and grime artist Kane Robinson.

Viewers were challenged to create their own Top Boy video mash-up by accessing an online video editing platform with the option to upload their own music track, or use one provided. The competition, which closed on Friday 2nd August, has received an impressive number of entries and the winning four will be broadcast on Channel 4, one after each episode of the series, having been chosen by a panel including Kane Robinson.

Four-part drama Top Boy, starring Ashley Walters and Kane Robinson, will start on Channel 4 on August 20 at 9pm.

The first series of Top Boy is available now on DVD courtesy of Warner Home Entertainment.