The thing I think about most especially when I'm on the go but also when I'm sat here in the barrier of the studio is the Wi-Fi and internet that we have to work with. In fact any time I'm filming away from the studio one of the first things I do is when I arrive I open up an app and do a speed test to see how strong the signal is and the number of screenshots I've said to my team about Wi-Fi signals at different locations is actually pretty crazy it matters that much to me because it's such a competitive advantage to have fast Wi-Fi because on any given day if I'm recording let's take hours and hours of footage for the podcast guest I then often have to have my team send that across to our London team who then do the edit. So fast Wi-Fi internet is not nice to have it is absolutely business mission critical. So when it came to finding the best provider who can supply internet Wi-Fi to our new LA studio which I'm saying right now we look to every single option and of all the providers the one that came back with this day's connection as well as being the cheapest was today's sponsor Spectrum Business.
Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all sizes connected with fast reliable internet advanced Wi-Fi phone TV and mobile services millions of business owners already rely on Spectrum to keep their operations connected. So if you want to join them head to spectrum.com slash business to learn more. That's spectrum.com slash business. Restrictions apply.
Service not available in all areas. When you look at your career you are a tremendous outlier in terms of the journey you've taken and what you're doing now. That's very hard. And then you trace it back and go you came from a counselor state not too far from here.
For you to have gone on that journey and achieve the things you have. I always think there must have been certain factors in those early years that made you take a different course to those friends that might still be on the estate now. It might have been you know we talked a lot about values there. It might have been you know I don't know something someone said to you an experience you had or just a conditioning whatever it is.
But my question is do you know what those factors were that made you an outline? I mean you sound as though you've done a lot of work on yourself and in a little bit I know about you. I get to meet people and ask so I learn so much from these kinds of answers. Right.
And I make documentaries for over 10 years. It's the same thing you learn so much from your environment if you're willing to drink in the information. Yeah. And I just in thinking about between therapy and also being um present in moments like this you know yes there are cameras but I'm having a conversation with you and I'm learning from you and that certainly was the case in 10 years of making films you know for BBC um so when it sort of comes to me looking at how I become the person I am and how my journey has played out the way it has done it's an amalgamation of different moments and instances but fundamentally it comes down to a desire even as a kid to understand and be aware and it's progressed into this idea of being present and understanding the moment that you're in and why you're there and taking as much from the moment as possible.
So as a child I would always ask questions and I was far too aware of my environment for my own good. So for instance I'll never sort of forget going to my friend Kieran's oh no yeah it was Kieran Buckley's house. I went to Kieran Buckley's house in Barnsbury and um uh my mum was very protective so she wouldn't let me play at friends' homes. I know you know how that goes.
And I went to Kieran's and I was in the garden and he had this massive massive beautiful Islington garden with several trees in it and I asked him how come you got a park at the back of your house? Um and his mother sort of overheard and laughed a bit and stayed with me. And he's like oh what's my god are you talking about? Come on free it in you're in gold mate.
And you play this game you don't think about it. And I remember going back to my council estate and looking at the one tree that me and Corey used to climb and think I don't have what he has. Why is that? And then you start to think about these things and start to understand class and where you are.
And even so far as the area you know I started to really recognize the power of my walk to school. Even as a kid before I got to secondary school I was like this is really weird. Like I live in a borough Islington in North London that has everything from council estates with immigrants and white working class right the way through to multi-million pound houses. And I lived on a road called Liverpool Road which is such an important road that I have only become aware of how important that road is to my journey in recent years.
So I lived at the Holloway end of Liverpool Road. And Liverpool Road is a long road that runs through Islington. And at the other end is Angel. And Angel gentrified years before Holloway.
Holloway is a very different place now. And they had a waitrose. They had a Sainsbury's and you had these gorgeous massive townhouses. And you know if you deviate off Liverpool Road you'd be in Barnsbury and there were these beautiful little villagey roads.
And Holloway was where the people that I grew up around live. And you had these estates. You had every kind of madness you can imagine happening in my estate. I remember the first time I saw a machine gun was in my estate at like nine years old when the police were raiding a flat on my floor because it was all kinds of craziness there.
And you're just playing on the balcony on your estate on the floor that you live on. You got on police there. You know let alone the other times that you see other weapons or you see other things happen. And those walks I would go on where I'd be like wow the bit that I live in versus the bit that I'm walking through versus the bit that I'm going to to go to school.
I know what bit I want to live on so I better start thinking about how I'm going to get to that bit of the road. It's so fascinating you say that. It took me in my head back to back to my own experiences being a kid. And I have this really the memory I have when they're looking up at the sky and seeing a plane and then looking down at my street and thinking I wonder if all of these families this is what they wanted from their life.
And the plane for me was the job's position to be a family going on holiday. I I've never been on other than coming from Africa. I've never been on holiday. So I think oh my god people are going on holiday.
And then I look down at my street and I look up again and I see this plane. And a lot of people will have that but it takes a different mind to then think I want to be on the plane. I want to be at the other end of Liverpool Street. But then also I have some idea about how to get there.
Maybe you didn't have some idea about how to get there but maybe just the manifestation. I want to be there so I'm going to make decisions over the next 10 years in that direction. Well my journey is super weird right because from the age of 8 I was a working hector. So I was constantly reminded about my difference just by being present and being aware even as a child.
So it didn't take much for me to realise you're not like your friends Reg because you're currently working while they're at school and you've been allowed time off school to work. So straight away you're like okay I'm a bit different and this is a bit of a bit of a situation to be in. And then you look around and there's a hundred people on the set and you're the only black person. Both in front and all behind the camera.
And you go okay wow I'm not like any of these people here and the conversations that you hear about what people get on the weekend or where they're going out even or even conversations about wine. Like little things that people take for granted culturally. I'm not drinking wine in my house. You know what I mean?
Like Shiloh was a big deal. You know? Going to Sainsbury's was a big deal. Like we used to walk to Dalston with backpacks to go and buy meat and tinned tomatoes and carry them back so we never had a car.
What does that do to you though? When you're on set everyone else is a different skin colour and they're talking about things that you're not familiar with in terms of like let's be honest like class right? What does that do to you and does it put a chip on your shoulder? Does it make you more ambitious?
Does it make you think fuck I'm out of place I'm an imposter? Yeah well it could have put a chip on my shoulder and I'm incredibly thankful that it didn't. What it did do was make me so hungry to create an environment where I could feel comfortable and what that progressed into was understanding that it's going to take me a while to get to the point I'd like to be at. Therefore it would be and become my responsibility to create that for someone else.
To create that for another eight year old me or 15 year old me. And I feel incredibly proud that I'm able to do that now because I recognise the power of it. And regardless of those moments of feeling out of place or being sort of feeling as though you know your class is being is being waved in your face. I told this story the other day to a friend of mine who's I've got a father to his child.
He's one of my good friends Sam Wilkinson. He he's the director who I made a lot of my documentaries with. And he's got my gorgeous little godson in his hands. Little Teddy and we're chatting away.
And I was telling him a story about being at this primary school in Isletham where you've got kids from the States and kids from quite affluent homes all in the same school. And at lunchtime you had these kids with Thundercats lunchboxes and these incredible sandwiches and KitKat minis. All the things I never had in my house you know. You're sort of looking at tinfoil that hasn't been used 50 times and you're like oh my god they're throwing a tinfoil in the bin.
What the hell? What the hell is going on? You've got to be made to fold and put it back because you could use it for dinner tomorrow. Anyway so you're like taking all that in and every lunchtime I'll never forget Pat by bless her the head dinner lady.
It's a big lady, big lady, big lady would walk out and she'd go free school dinners and all the kids that were on free school dinners used to have to stand up and go and get food. And it sort of broke you a little bit as a kid because your mix was just like oh my god can you imagine. And I told this story to Sam and he started crying. And Sam started crying I think not because well I think he felt a little sad for the little mini me but he also as a father imagined his son in that position.
And I'm sure we'll get on to family and fatherhood and stuff but you know I realise how much fatherhood has softened a lot of my friends and also has made me very sort of cognizant of my journey and also just how important my childhood was in shaping who I've become. The thing I think about most especially when I'm on the go but also when I'm sat here in the barrier of the studio is the Wi-Fi and internet that we have to work with. In fact any time I'm filming away from the studio one of the first things I do is when I arrive I open up and do a speed test to see how strong the signal is. And the number of screenshots I've sent to my team about Wi-Fi signals at different locations is actually pretty crazy it matters that much to me because it's such a competitive advantage to have fast Wi-Fi because on any given day if I'm recording let's say hours and hours of footage with a podcast guest I then often have to have my team send that across to our London team who then do the edit.
So fast Wi-Fi internet is not nice to have it is absolutely business mission critical. So when it came to finding the best provider who could supply internet and Wi-Fi to our new LA studio which I'm sent right now we looked at every single option. And of all the providers the one that came back with the studies connection as well as being the cheapest was today's sponsor Spectrum Business. Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all sizes connected with fast reliable internet advanced Wi-Fi phone TV and mobile services.
Millions of business owners already rely on Spectrum to keep their operations connected. So if you want to join them head to Spectrum.com slash business to learn more. That's Spectrum.com slash business. Restrictions apply.
Service not available in all areas.