The new bill
How Bulletproof brings buddy cop action to the Big Smoke in style
IT’S TAKEN NOEL Clarke (actor, writer, frequent Ashley Walters collaborator) and Ashley Walters (actor, rapper, frequent Noel Clarke collaborator) eight years to get new cop show Bulletproof off the ground — because it looks unlike anything else on British TV. Or rather
they look unlike anyone else on British TV. “I was sitting at home watching Bad
Boys, one of my favourite franchises,” says Walters, “and I thought, ‘Why isn’t there anything like this in the UK, with two black leads?” I called Noel and we thought we should make a film about two black UK cops.” They shopped the idea around, but couldn’t get backing for a film. Eventually they took it to production company Vertigo, who brought in director Nick Love (The Football Factory, The
Business) and the three developed it into a show, which was then picked up by Sky.
“It’s only in the past 18 months that things have really changed,” says Clarke. “Two black leads? Nobody would take any notice [of us]. In 2016, the BFI did a study of the most prolific black actors of the last ten years and we were number one and two. I think then people thought they should have another look.”
Empire joins the project in Silvertown, a tiny area of Newham in East London that, it’s not unfair to say, is not one of the capital’s beauty spots, a cheerless little gathering of factories slumped on the north bank of the Thames. We head to the set of Bulletproof expecting your usual gritty British police drama. Then we turn a corner and among towers of shipping containers is a little scene that looks plucked from some coastal spot much closer to the Equator. Noel Clarke is sitting under strings of fairy lights, draped between a rusty old boat and a little van selling coffee and snacks. The setting sun glitters off the water behind him and Canary Wharf glows in the distance. It’s odd, beautiful and vaguely fantastical. It looks like London but not. That is rather the point.
The show follows police duo Bishop (Clarke) and Pike (Walters), two best friends and working partners. Bishop grew up in the foster system, without parental guidance, fighting for every
opportunity. Pike followed the path of a father who was the first black police commissioner. They’re two very different men bonded by mutual trust and friendship, until a new case tests it.
They want the show to be confidently different from anything else on TV. “Look at it,” says Clarke, gesturing at the set. “It’s cinematic! It’s very Bad Boys. It’s very Lethal Weapon. It’s a serious show, but their relationship has loads of humour. You don’t get that in British shows. It’s all so serious! This is
action-packed.” With eight years’ worth of ideas, they’re not leaving anything on the drawing board.
Bulletproof will be On sky One and now TV This spring. FOR more great TV Features, buy pilot tv, On sale now FOR £4.99