10 Best British TV Characters Of The Decade
6. Sully (Top Boy)
Musicians moonlighting as actors can be hit and miss, but the creators of Top Boy have managed to build a surprisingly competent cast around the UK rap scene. From Dave to Asher D to Little Simz, performers are given meaty roles and tend to excel in them. None reach the heights, however, of Kano, whose performance as Sully provides most of the emotional heft of the Drake-backed hit drama.
Kano has a knack for subtlety - he tends not to shout or chew scenery, choosing instead to express Sully’s increasingly difficult predicaments with ever-deflating body language. The character’s unusual but charming friendship with Jason, a child of addicts, is one of the show’s best drawn relationships, and the scenes of the two of them taking some time off from the dangerous streets of London to visit the coast (albeit to sell drugs) are a real highlight.
Top Boy doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel - we’ve all seen gritty drug trade dramas. But in Sully, the creators have an in-depth look at the weight of crime on a man. The long gap between the Channel 4 and Netflix seasons works in the show’s favour. Sully goes from the swaggering titular Top Boy to a beaten down ex-con who can’t help but backslide immediately into his old ways. The bluster and bravado peel away until we’re left only with something close to a harrowing cautionary tale.