The crime drama Top Boy, which now airs on Netflix after having its first two series shown on Channel 4, has won the Bafta TV award for ‘Best Drama Series’, beating away some strong competition from Happy Valley and The Crown.
Many thought that the final season of The Crown would be on the receiving end of a win, but Top Boy swooped in to take the glory. The gritty show takes place on a fictional estate in East London and tells of the harsh lives of two local drug dealers.
In addition, Jasmine Jobson, who plays Jaq Lawrence in the show, has also beaten Elizabeth Debicki and Lesley Manville from The Crown, Happy Valley’s Siobhan Finneran and Dame Harriet Walter of Succession to the ‘Best Supporting Actress’ award.
The Bafta TV awards success has been well-received by the creators and producers ofTop Boy, which has just finished its fifth series, following a 2017 revival with both Ashley Walters and Kane Robinson reprising their original roles.
The show’s creator, Ronan Bennett, has recently confirmed that he is interested in bringing a spin-off series to Netflix that would surround the life of Jaq Lawrence, played by Jasmine Jobson.
Bennett admitted that he would be “bittersweet” about letting go of the character of Jobson and expressed his desire to explore her character more, although he conceded that Netflix might be “angry” about him sharing plans before they are concrete.
“I’ve learned through bitter experience not to talk too much about shows that are in the future,” Bennett had told the BBC. “You just never know if they’re going to get made, and in fact, most shows that are developed actually don’t get made.”
The writer added, “You can write the script and, for whatever reason, they don’t get made. So you end up looking like a bit of a fool for mentioning it. But I have hopes that this will work.”
Still, Bennett believes that there is a rich deepness to Top Boy that has led to a “fanatical following”, meaning that there’s plenty of scope to continuing to write stories set in its world, or as he puts it, “there’s more juice to squeeze from Top Boy.”
It’s likely that Bennett will be further buoyed from the recent Bafta TV awards wins for Top Boy, so don’t be too surprised in news surrounding more seasons arrives soon.
