British actor Idris Elba (Luther, Hijack) will front a new BBC One documentary on the reality of knife crime in the U.K.
In recent years, the star has been vocal as an anti-knife crime activist and hopes the hourlong program, Idris Elba: A Year of Knife Crime (a working title), will spotlight solutions to solve the crisis. He will meet with young offenders, bereaved families, youth workers and the police in a bid to understand the uptick in knife crime across Britain.
The film will feature a meeting with U.K. prime minister Keir Starmer, who said that his government would commit to halving knife crime if elected, and a meeting with King Charles to discuss ways to solve the problem.
A BBC press release said: “Idris faced crossroads in his life as a teenager and knows how easy it would have been to go down a different path, having grown up in what he describes as a tough part of East London, where violence was always a possibility.”
Elba said: “So many people dismiss knife crime as something that doesn’t affect them, assuming it’s a black and brown urban and gang-related problem — but this couldn’t be further from the truth.” He continued: “White, middle class and rural areas are also affected, perpetrators are getting younger and fear is spreading. I hope our film goes some way towards changing these stereotypes and getting everyone to engage with one of the biggest challenges of our time. For me, it’s been a tough year — but I’m hopeful.”
The documentary is produced by 22Summers for BBC One and BBC iPlayer. The executive producers are Diene Petterle (In Cold Blood, Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now) and Nina Davies (Jews Don’t Count, Better off Dead?). Leanne Hayman (Tagged) is a producer and Ben Steele (Bad Surgeon, Dead Calm) directs. It was commissioned by Joanna Carr, head of BBC Current Affairs. The commissioning editor for the BBC is Gian Quaglieni.
English (US) ·