Star Wars actor John Boyega and director Steve McQueen join forces to tell stories about South London community
By Melissa Kasule
It has taken six years to come to fruition – but now two South Londoners have joined together to tell stories about their community.
And it will have a global audience as one of them is Peckham’s Star Wars actor John Boyega. The other is Oscar-winning director and Goldsmith’s College graduate Steve McQueen.
And in one of the stories, Mr Boyega will play Leroy Logan, founder of the National Association of Black Police Officers, who helped run Camberwell anti-knife and gun crime charity One Big Community.
Mr Boyega’s return, at the end of the Star Wars saga, will be in the new BBC drama Small Axe, named after the Bob Marley song of the same name.
Mr McQueen’s films – to be distributed in the US by Amazon – will retell the stories within London’s West Indian community between the 1960s and 1980s.
Mr Boyega will appear in the titled episode Red, White And Blue, telling how Mr Logan joined the Metropolitan Police to bring change from within after he saw his father assaulted by two policemen.
Mr Logan was made an MBE by the Queen in 2001 for his role in developing anti-racist policies for the police, and retired in 2013 as a superintendent after 30 years of service.
Mr Logan said on Twitter: “Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought my life story would get to the attention of film director Steve McQueen, starred by John Boyega and part of the BBC Small Axe series. You couldn’t make this up and I’ve had to pinch myself.”
The episode, co-written by Courttia Newland and Mr McQueen, will also feature Prince of Persia actor Steve Toussaint.
Another episode is about Brixton rapper, MC and novelist Alex Wheatle.
The other three Small Axe episodes are Mangrove, Lovers Rock, and Education. Mangrove and Lovers Rock were selected as part of the Cannes Film Festival line-up in June.
Mr McQueen dedicated Small Axe to George Floyd and “all the other black people that have been murdered, seen or unseen, because of who they are”.
Pictured top: John Boyega
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