The hit series Top Boy has finished after five seasons. Created and written by Ronan Bennett, the crime drama follows drug dealers Dushane (Ashley Walters) and Sully (Kano) about their daily lives on the fictional Hackney estate of Summerhouse, London.
The synopsis for the final season reads: “Sully’s actions at the end of the last series have rewritten his business rules with Dushane. As new shared problems arise, everything they’ve built comes under threat from forces outside and within their empire.”
Continuing: “Can they coexist by the rules of the road they’ve lived by their whole lives in a world that is changing before them? Or can there only be one Top Boy?”
Notably, Top Boy debuted on Channel 4 in 2011 before the network dropped it after just two seasons in 2014. Later, in 2019, it was revived by Netflix, with the input of rapper Drake, and the fifth and final season arrived on the streaming service on September 7th this year. Other returning cast members include Little Simz, Jasmine Jobson and Lisa Dwan. New additions feature Barry Keoghan and Brian Gleeson.
Although the Summerhouse estate is fictional, Top Boy has used various real-life locations to bring it to life. The show’s original two seasons were mainly shot on the Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle. However, it was demolished in 2014, meaning that a lot of interior and exterior scenes on the Summerhouse were filmed on the Isle of Dogs’ Samuda Estate.
Another filming location has been the De Beauvoir estate in Hackney, which is widely believed to have inspired the Summerhouse. Elsewhere, other areas of East London, such as Dalston, Haggerston and Newham, have been used. Adding a tangible sense of realism to the show, many other locations are real, including the Number One Cafe, a real eatery in London Fields. Additionally, Shelley’s Nail Bar is a real salon in Canning Town called Kiki’s Nail Salon.
Notably, in season three, some of the leading cast travel to Jamaica, which was shot on location. You can watch footage from that jaunt below.