He’s a prolific actor, director, producer and screenwriter, but Noel Clarke is never satisfied. He tells Emma Higginbotham why.
When Noel Clarke and his friend Ashley Walters came up with the idea for Bulletproof, an adrenaline-fuelled, banter-rich drama about two London police detectives, there was a problem. Despite Noel being a Bafta-winning actor, and Ashley the star of hit crime show Top Boy, nobody would take it on.
“They didn’t think it would sell,” says Noel. “No one thought it would work. I literally sat in meetings where someone said to me ‘One of you has to be white’.”
How did that feel? “That’s just the way it was,” he shrugs. “It’s still kind of like that. But someone at Sky thought ‘I like the vibe of this show, let’s put it together’. And I don’t think for a second anybody thought it was going to work as well as it did. We’re very proud of it.”
Slickly shot and action-packed, but infused with warmth and humour, Bulletproof became one of Sky One’s most-watched shows. And the timing of a new three-part special couldn’t be better. Filmed pre-pandemic, Bulletproof: South Africa sees Bishop (Noel) and Pike (Ashley) swap collaring criminals for relaxing on a sun-drenched holiday – until a young girl is kidnapped. With all the usual high-octane car chases and shoot-outs, plus added diamond heists and bare chests, it’s just the kind of escapism we all need.
The show’s success, says the 45-year-old, lies the characters’ bond. “People relate to having that connection with a friend, where they laugh about things and talk about their problems. And for two male characters, it’s not always seen on screen in that way, so that makes it special.”
The son of Trinidadian immigrants who split up when he was a baby, Noel was brought up by his mum on a council estate “five minutes from the blue door in the movie Notting Hill”, but a world away from the gentility.
What was young Noel like? “He was all right! He was a kid that didn’t mind being on his own, that always liked films and TV, that didn’t get in trouble when his friends did. I was never afraid to say no.”
In his teens he worked at Kensington Leisure Centre, qualifying as a gym instructor but dreaming of being an actor. Frustrated that people of colour in films were usually depicted “dancing or stealing”, he wrote screenplays featuring the kind of characters he wanted to play.
His big break came when he heard that actor and screenwriter Rikki Beadle-Blair, a regular at the leisure centre, was casting for a new TV show. Noel begged him for an audition.
“He said can you act? And I said yeah, 100%! And he said look, this is Channel 4, this is my first directing gig. If I bring you in and you’re terrible, it’s going to look bad on me. I said dude, I will not let you down.”
He didn’t. The series, Metrosexuality, about a group of diverse Notting Hill friends, aired in 1999, then Noel won the role of Wyman Norris – son of the late Gary Holton’s character, Wayne – in the reboot of cult comedy drama Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. “Just unbelievable,” he says. “Metrosexuality was one thing, but Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was really something special, because it was a show that I watched when I was younger with my mum.”
Then came another reboot of another childhood favourite: Doctor Who. “It was unreal. I was only supposed to be in three episodes, but I liked Russell (T Davies, who revived the show), he’s an amazing man, and he liked me, and he said ‘I want to bring you back’.”
While he played Mickey Smith – the Doctor’s first black companion – for five years, Noel really got himself noticed as murderous Sam Peel in the gritty coming-of-age movie Kidulthood (2006), which he’d written in his teens.
“It’s based on me and two of my friends, and the way we hung out. The fictional stuff is the gun stuff. I had friends that did all that, but it was not something that I was ever involved with. But it was around me, so that’s why I felt like I could write about it.”
The film was a hit, and its 2008 sequel Adulthood, which Noel also directed, grossed more than £1 million at the box office on its opening weekend. Brotherhood (2016), which he also produced, completed the trilogy.
Noel’s accomplishments are inspirational. He won an Olivier Award for the only play he’s ever done (Where Do We Live in 2003), a Bafta six years later, and he’s always working, both here and in the States. Yet when the 2019 film Fishermen’s Friends came out, although Noel’s name was one of seven on the poster, his picture was not. Instead there’s a line of six white faces, none more famous than his.
“The question is this,” he says. “If you had an actor that achieved everything I had achieved – hit movies that they’ve written, directed and starred in, a number one TV show, has won a BAFTA, an Olivier, has been in Hollywood movies – and that person was white, how would they not be on the poster?
“It goes back to what I talked about with Bulletproof. I don’t think anybody was being overtly racist, but somewhere down the line, someone made the decision that it would be better if my face wasn’t on it. That’s a marketing decision. That’s how it’s been for years, and that’s how it still is.”
So Noel is making waves. He insists on having people of colour not only in front of the camera, but in his film crews too. What would young Noel make of it all? “I think ‘young me’ would be proud,” he says. “I think ‘me me’ now is never really content.
“I always want to achieve more, to constantly improve, to set goals and break them, and progress each and every time. Not just for myself, but for all the people coming behind me, so that it’s easier for them than it was for me.”
:: Bulletproof: South Africa is on Sky One and NOW TV
Noel and his wife, Iris, have been together for 17 years. They live with their three young sons in west London.
He stars as Mr Brownlow in the upcoming movie Twist – a modern-day retelling of Oliver Twist, which he also produced – alongside Sir Michael Caine as Fagin and Jude Law’s son, Rafferty, as Oliver.
He hurriedly took an intensive driving course when his role in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet depended on being able to drive. “I had to pass my test in two weeks or I couldn’t take the job, and to this day I don’t know if I really passed. I remember telling the examiner why I was doing it, and they might have given me a helping hand... If they’re reading this, then thank you!”
An edited version of this interview featured in Waitrose Weekend in January 2021 (c) Waitrose