Top Boy
Top Boy is a British crime drama thriller television series created and written by Ronan Bennett. The series is set on the fictional Summerhouse estate in the London Borough of Hackney. It focuses on two drug dealers, Dushane and Sully, along with others involved with drug dealing and gang violence in London.
There are 32 episodes across five series. The first two series, with 4 episodes each, were broadcast on Channel 4, with the first series airing over four consecutive nights from 31 October to 3 November 2011 and the second series airing from 20 August to 10 September 2013. Although storylines for a third series were proposed, the series was dropped by Channel 4 in 2014.
Following interest from Canadian rapper Drake, it was announced in 2017 that Netflix would revive the series, with both Ashley Walters and Kane Robinson, as well as the original crew, reprising their roles, and Drake and his team serving as executive producers. The third and fourth series premiered on Netflix in September 2019 and March 2022, respectively, and were presented as the first and second series of an original Netflix series. The previous two series originally broadcast in the UK were added to Netflix under the name Top Boy: Summerhouse. A fifth and final series was renewed on 31 March 2022 and aired on 7 September 2023.
The series has received critical acclaim for its writing, acting, cinematography, themes, realism, and soundtrack, with favourable comparisons to other crime shows such as The Wire, Snowfall, and Power. It has received several awards and nominations from the British Academy Television Awards, including nominations for the British Academy Television Award for Best Mini-Series and Best Actor for Kane Robinson. In addition, it has won Drama Series, Best Original Music, Best Director: Fiction, Best Scripted Casting and Best Supporting Actress for Jasmine Jobson.
Plot
Series 1 (2011)
The series follows the plight of Ra'nell as he navigates the pitfalls of living on the crime-filled Summerhouse estate after his mother, Lisa, is admitted to a mental hospital. Ra'Nell, who has gained a reputation around the estate for his volatile behaviour after stabbing his abusive father, is quiet and closed off. While his mother is in hospital, he is cared for by her close friend, Leon, who was once a respected enforcer of the estate but has since put his past behind him. Meanwhile, Lisa's pregnant friend Heather enlists Ra'Nell's help to grow a cannabis crop so she can earn enough money to move out of the estate to a safer place.Meanwhile, his best friend, Gem, realizes he is in over his head when he begins to work for Summerhouse drug dealers Dushane and Sully. Gem is easily coerced and is at the mercy of their trusted enforcer, Dris, who is ruthless and violent.
Dushane and Sully run the estate together with relative ease, but are at risk after Kamale, a rival drug dealer from London Fields, steals a large amount of their supply. They need to find the thief and recover their stash before their supplier, Bobby Raikes, takes action. The urgency of the chase puts Dushane and Sully's partnership in jeopardy.
Series 2 (2013)
The second series was set one year after the events of the first series. After the police uncover a body, Dushane, Sully, and Dris are arrested. Dushane quickly realises that there is a snitch in their crew, and must deal with the repercussions. The snitch is revealed to be Michael, Dushane's favourite dealer. The police forced him to give information about Dushane.Meanwhile, Sully is attempting to start up his own crew to rival Dushane's with his friend Mike, a borderline psychopathic ex-convict. When a deal with Dushane's Albanian business partners goes bad, he attempts to enlist Sully's help once more to take them out. He comes into contact with Jason, a neglected boy who is trying to survive in a world filled with drugs and murder.
Series 3 (2019)
The first series of the revival show takes place five years after the original series. Dushane has fled to Jamaica, where he is getting by working in his uncle's car-rental shop with his cousin. After killing a soldier in imprisoned drug lord Sugar's organisation in a robbery gone wrong, he makes a business deal with Sugar that would ensure no retaliation on his life in return for running an empire in London on Sugar's behalf. He returns to London and enlists the help of Dris and Jaq, who were running Summerhouse by this point while Dushane was away. However, a new crew from London Fields, headed by the ruthless Jamie, won't stand for Dushane stepping on their turf.While Dushane was in Jamaica, London has become more gentrified and the cost of living has risen. After his return, he learns that his sick mother is being cared for by Shelley, a young carer and single mother. Her eight-year-old daughter begins to form a strong relationship with Dushane.
Sully is in prison with Modie, a murderous drug dealer who ran the rival London Fields gang in Dushane and Sully's absence. An altercation between the two men when queuing up in the prison cafeteria escalates to the point that Sully throws boiling sugar water on Modie's face days before he is due to be released. Modie sees him as an enemy and later in the series, he seeks revenge against Sully.
By then Modie has escaped with the help of Sully's cousin Jermaine, whom Sully had kidnapped in the previous series. When Sully is released, he reconnects with Jason and Gem to begin selling in Ramsgate. Jason is killed in a house fire and Sully reluctantly reunites with Dushane to do business again. Meanwhile, Dris, having suffered a stroke that has left him partially disabled, struggles with his responsibilities after Dushane's return.
Jamie attempts to assert his dominance in the borough; he is driven to provide for his younger brothers, Aaron and Stefan. Their parents both developed cancer and died within days of each other, when Jamie was 18-years-old and the brothers even younger.
He starts business with an upper-class Irish drug supplier, Lizzie, and her husband, Jeffery. Jamie's thirst for power and subsequent battles with Dushane's crew at Summerhouse comprise the main plot throughout this series. Dushane eventually orchestrates Jamie being prosecuted and convicted, and sent to prison. He led police to find a bag filled with weapons and drugs in the flat where Jamie lived with his brothers.
Series 4 (2022)
The second series of the revival show takes place six months after the events of the last. Dushane wants to expand his empire beyond the streets by making huge investments in London and finding new connections in Spain and Morocco. This causes tensions between the community and his sick mother, who is now aware and ashamed of her son's business.Jamie, after agreeing to work for Dushane in exchange for Dushane forwarding CCTV footage that would exonerate him, has been released from prison: with his gang now beginning to work with the Summerhouse gang. He attempts to reconnect with his younger brother, Stefan, following his friend Ats's death due to knife crime. But Dushane sends him to sort out a botched drug deal in Spain and Morocco.
Jaq, Dushane's new second-in-command following the death of Dris, tries to rescue her pregnant older sister Lauryn. She is in an abusive relationship with Curtis, a weapons dealer based in Liverpool.
Sully suffers from PTSD in the aftermath of murdering Dris and struggling with the death of his younger friend Jason, who was almost a son to him. He is suspicious about Jamie and Dushane doing business together. Meanwhile, Shelley and other local residents try to fight against Dushane's planned redevelopment of Summerhouse. Shelley comes to terms with her dark past; she was being blackmailed for aiding in the burial of her ex-boyfriend's murder victim.
Sully suspects that Jamie was working with the Moroccans and wasn't to be trusted. To trust his loyalty, Dushane tells Jamie to kill his best friend. Although Jamie completes the task and earns Dushane's trust, Sully shoots Jamie in Jamie's home in front of his brothers.
Series 5 (2023)
The third series of the revival show takes place immediately after the previous series. After killing Jamie, Sully threatens to kill Dushane next if he doesn't step down as the leader of the Summerhouse gang. Dushane reluctantly does so, and Sully becomes the leader, alongside his friend Junior. Dushane takes the time to focus on helping Shelley expand her business. As the new leader, Sully is forced to form an uneasy alliance with Irish gang leader Jonny McGee and his uncle Tadgh, who killed the Moroccan drug suppliers.Tormented by Jamie's death, Stefan has been moved to a care home and has been taken under the wing of Jamie's friend and fellow ZT member Si, who encourages Stefan to avenge his brother's death. Stefan refuses, in favour of beginning a relationship with Dris' daughter, Erin, who is now living with her mother and Dris' widow Mandy.
Dushane learns that Lizzie and her accountant friend, Lithe, has stolen £15 million from his account, putting him in a state of desperation and anger, to the point where he kills Lizzie's husband, Jeffrey, and snaps at Shelley, who subsequently breaks up with him due to his obsession with money and power. Dushane's failure to clean up after Jeffrey's murder puts him on the police's radar.
Meanwhile, upon giving birth to a baby boy, Lauryn suffers from post-natal depression and drowns in the bath from a drug overdose. Heartbroken, Jaq becomes disillusioned with selling drugs and decides to steal Sully's drugs to try and stop the cycle of drug use and abuse in her community.
The series finale concludes with Sully shooting Dushane to death for stealing his previously stolen drugs. The next day, Sully walks down the park where he encounters Stefan, who holds Sully at gunpoint. Sully seems fine with dying, but Stefan changes his mind and decides it is not worthwhile. Sully then goes to the car park and starts the engine. After fastening his seatbelt, he is fatally shot in the back of the head through his car by an unknown assailant.