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Hello? Faz, what's happening, my G?
How are you?

Official YIFY movies site:
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Oh, it's Idris.
IDRIS CHUCKLES

I'm good, man, I'm good.
How are you?

What's happening?
Are you good?

How you doing? You been busy?
Yeah.

Ids, look. Last seven weeks, boy,

this is what we're messing with,
yeah?

All these cases.

All these cases? Yeah.

I'm about to go to the station
to hand these in.

Oh, my days.

So, like, these are the typical
Rambos that a lot of the people use.

Yeah. Like, these cost, like,
tenners, Idris.

£10?

But we got weapons that
the tubes just can't facilitate.

Yeah. Like, look.

You know what I mean?

Oh, my God.

These are the kind of weapons
that we're trying to get banned.

SHOUTS INDISTINCTLY

You think you're a bad boy, yeah?

Knife crime is
a heartbreaking problem,

and in the past ten years
has almost doubled.

I'm Idris Elba, and a few years ago,
I became involved in the fight

against knife crime.

In 2024, I invited a film crew
to join me as I try to get

to the root of the problem.

I want to meet people
who have carried a knife...

Now I realise I was carrying
a deadly weapon.

Back in the day,
carrying was pretty normal.

Where your keys? Where your phone?
Where your knife?

..and get everyone talking
about the challenges ahead...

Morning.

Morning. Hi, how are you?

..so we can all push those
in power to take action...

It's a lot of money.
How are we going to pay for it?

Just follow me.
..and find real solutions.

It is the most rewarding job
I've done

since I've been in the police
in 19 years.

It definitely works.

There is hope.

There's got to be ways
that this can be done.

No issue is permanent.

There's got to be a way out of it.

Because this is a problem
that can affect anyone.

You don't have to be a bad child.

You don't have to be in a gang.

You don't have to carry the knife
to be the victim of knife crime.

If you've got a knife or you know
someone that's got a knife,

tell them to stab themselves
right now.

Trust me, because you're just
going to stab your future

if you go and stab someone else.

You become a murderer, you go
to prison, you ain't got shit.

For what?

For some beef that lives
within your community.

You need to see past that.

We have to say something about it.

Five years ago, I had this rant.

Just felt quite overwhelmed
and angry.

It's just a constant flux of
young people murdering each other.

Knife crime happens every day.

But that particular day
was just very...

You know, It was really painful
for me.

I felt the need and the urge
to speak up.

So, over the last five years,
my focus has been on campaigning

to raise awareness
and push for solutions.

But to be effective, we need
to understand why some people

are choosing to carry a knife
in the first place.

How old were you when you
started carrying a knife?

I think I was 12.

In a park in Coventry,

I got 20 people run up on me,
carrying all sorts of things.

And one of them swung an axe.

And then, ever since then, I didn't
step outside without a knife.

Well, you're scared after that,
ain't you?

You're going to be.

You got jumped.

So you're going to want to protect
yourself some way, innit?

And that was the only way
I could think of.

But I don't do that no more.

That's old me.

It still is quite normal
for where I'm from to see someone

carrying a blade on them.

I nearly got two pulled out
on me this week.

So...

Police are appealing
for information

after the fatal stabbing
of 16-year-old Harry Pitman,

who had gone with a group
of friends to see

the New Year's Eve fireworks
from Primrose Hill.

He was killed as hundreds of people
gathered at the popular spot.

SIREN BLARES

We often assume all sorts of things

about those who get involved
in knife crime.

But is there a type?

Tayla. Hi, mate.
Lovely to meet you.

Nice to meet you, Tayla,
how are you?

How's your family?

We're getting there.

This is his memorial.

It's really nice to come and sit
here and just, like, be with him...

Yeah. ..because it feels like
he's here.

You could spot Harry a mile off.

He had bright orange hair.
He was your younger brother, right?

Yeah. Was Harry at school?
He was at college.

He was studying law.

He wanted to do something
in that sort of field.

Yeah. He was very clever.
Very clever boy.

Smart boy. Yeah.

That's heartbreaking.

You know, I would be
in bits all the time.

I have my days, I do.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure, man.

But was it just a beef?
Was it a fight?

All we know is there was
some sort of altercation.

And within that altercation,
Harry was stabbed and killed.

Yeah.

The boy's the same age as
my brother. Really? 16-year-old.

I hate to say it,
but people think it's a race thing.

Exactly. You know.

That was the first thing that
come out, when Harry was killed,

was, "I bet it was a black person.
I bet it was a black person."

And it wasn't.
It was another white boy.

So it can literally be anyone
and happen to anyone.

There is such a general perception
about this whole thing...

..that knife crime just affects
black and brown communities.

And it's just so, um...disheartening

because it's like no-one really
cares to really understand it.

And the truth is
that the majority of people

that are involved
in knife crime are white.

There's also a perception that knife
crime just happens in big cities.

Knife crime impacts lives
across the UK.

The areas with the highest rate of
increase are Avon and Somerset,

Bedfordshire and Sussex.

But the worst affected area
over the past two years

is the West Midlands.

Go on!

Two 12-year-old boys
have been found guilty

of murdering a man with a machete
in a park in Wolverhampton.

The pair, who can't be named
because of their age,

are thought to be the youngest boys

to have committed a knife-related
murder in the UK.

It's in suburban neighbourhoods

that some of the most horrific
attacks have taken place.

Nice to meet you. I'm Damian.

Idris. Thanks for meeting me.

Yeah, no problem.

I've been sort of campaigning

against knife crime
for about five years.

What's been happening is,
I've just been learning

that I don't know enough.

Yeah. And in this area,
it was quite significant.

Something happened here, right?
Yeah.

We had a 19-year-old lad,
Shawn Seesahai,

sitting over on that bench,
over there,

and then two other lads,
12 years old,

approached him
and they were carrying a machete.

A 12-year-old? Yeah.

I mean... They've had a row,

next thing you know,
Shawn's lying, you know,

not 15 metres from where we are now.

Massive stab wounds
to the back of his skull.

A burr in his skull.

Stab wounds all down his back,
and he's dead.

What was the nature of the fight?
We don't know.

We've never found anything
or there's nothing been said

to suggest that there, you know,
there was any way

this is, like, postcode
or gang related.

But, you know, the reality is,
the two defendants have gone out

with a knife. You carry that knife
and it's in play.

There's the knife,
after we'd recovered it.

See this? Wow. That's...
That's the machete?

That's the machete.

I mean, look at that thing.

Yep.

My son's ten.

Yeah. You know, so this is,
like, right under my nose.

You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, yeah.

When you see, you know,
12-year-olds...

Yep. ..that must be unusual.

When we learnt the identity
of the two lads involved,

there was a bit of a collective
pause where everyone was, like,

it feels like something's
different here.

It feels, you know, you're crossing
the Rubicon a bit. Mm.

But at the same time,

it was more the grim reality
of where we're at... Yeah.

..rather than complete surprise.

How does this community
sort of get past that?

How do we not see it happen again?

Knife crime will not be stopped
by police officers alone.

Yeah. That will never happen.

I started the year thinking about
how easy it is for people

to buy knives
and how accessible they are.

Morning.

We're on something Idris Elba
is talking about today.

The actor is starting a campaign
to speed up changes to law.

He joined victims'
families outside parliament later

to launch a new campaign
calling for an immediate ban

on zombie style knives and machetes.

At the top of this year,
usually everyone's got

a New Year's resolution,
got some new vigour.

Let's take that new vigour and let's
apply it to eradicating knife crime.

The campaign really landed and made
as much noise as possible,

to the point where, you know,
the Government at the time pledged

to change a loophole in the law
about zombie knives.

It's the first step, with a ban
on zombie style knives and machetes.

But it doesn't fix the problem,
because there are so many knives

and swords that are still legal
to own and sell.

It's complicated because we all have
knives in the kitchen.

But maybe the answer is simple -

introduce ironclad restrictions
on the sale

of all dangerous knives
that aren't used for cooking.

Six men have been
sentenced to life in prison

for the murder of a teenager
in south-east London.

Just 17 years old when he
was stabbed to death in Betts Park

in Bromley in 2017.

When I lost my brother, I was 15
at the time when that happened.

You'd never been faced
with that situation before.

You don't actually know what to say.

To put it quite simply,

I had many different offers
involving retaliation

around what happened
with my brother.

You've got to remember, you're
looking at it from the outside,

and you live
in a completely different world

to the world that these
young people are living in.

Even with me and my situation,

I could have became
a habitual knife carrier.

A lot of young people, if they come
from certain areas within the UK,

before they reached the age of 14,
witness some form of stabbing.

That's how a lot of young people
grew up, seeing it happen.

That's how I grew up,
seeing it happen.

We have to take knives
off the streets,

but we have to also go further
than that.

This problem of knife crime,
it's a real indication of how much

we have failed young people,
how much the society that that kid

is brought up into has allowed
this to happen,

and it hasn't safeguarded them
enough.

Mate, what are you doing?

Get back!

Oi!

Oh, shit.

Oh, shit!

Shit!

Now, these images are being fed
to, like, young people.

It's going, you know,
in their social media,

and it's being fed through
their algorithms.

And, I mean, when you watch
this stuff,

it's crazy what you're seeing.

And for me, all this does
is just really perpetuate more fear.

You see that, you go,
"Well, I haven't got a shank.

"I haven't got a knife.
I might need one."

And it glorifies it.

It might even be pushing kids
towards, you know,

some sort of, like, arms race

where they want to get bigger
and more scarier knives.

For young people's minds
that are developing,

acting out of fear and high anxiety,
they resort to knife carrying.

That's almost glamorised
in certain spaces.

I'm Samir. I work with 11 to
25-year-olds who have been stabbed.

So my background, growing up
in a loving family,

but I would say
slightly dysfunctional.

No father was involved.

So, you know, mum was mum and dad.

Mum was incarcerated
at a period of time.

Mum experienced domestic violence.
We went into foster care.

Did you ever carry
a knife?

It was just standard.

Carrying was pretty normal.
Pretty normal.

Where your keys? Where your phone?
Where your knife?

And you look at the timeline
of all these contributing factors.

To me, in the end,

got involved in a gang related
murder where I stabbed someone,

who subsequently died.

I was incarcerated at age 18
and spent 16 years in custody.

I've been to Feltham Young Offenders
Institute a number of times.

I've been there as a resident,
as an inmate,

but I've also been there
to deliver workshops as well.

So, yeah, Feltham,
I know really well.

The mission statement
on prison walls

talks about, in capital letters,
rehabilitation.

But, you know, a victim's family
would want to see you sometimes die,

you know, capital punishment,
or see you rot in prison.

There's definitely, like, a whole
sector of people that just believe

that people should
just be sent to jail.

That's it, you know?

That's the only deterrent.

And if there was tougher sentencing,
there'll be less knife crime.

For sure, I can understand
why people are just like,

"That's what we've got jails for,
send them to jail."

I've been given access to Feltham,
the most violent prison in the UK.

If there was no law,
we'd be at each other's throats.

It's just human nature.

So it is important
to have deterrence.

What I want to try and understand,
direct from the young people

that are in prison for knife related
crime, is where it all went wrong.

Trying to really understand
what that fork in the road was...

..because obviously the threat
of prison hasn't deterred them.

Thank you.

Go on in.

Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, man.

Thanks for meeting me.

Do you mind me asking,
how long have you been in?

Oh, two and a bit months.

Why are you in?

For a stabbing.

Stabbing? Yeah, GBH.

How old are you? I'm 17.

17? Yeah.

When was the first time
you held a knife?

Probably like 13.

So what I'm trying to understand
here is, like,

ten years ago, you were seven.

What was life like for you then?
Family life? Pretty...

No, family life was messy,
to be honest with you.

OK. My dad used to have
mad anger issues.

He's making no money, coming home,
taking it out on whatever.

Right. How was school life for you?

Did you...?
No, school life was shit.

I'd be so raw.

I'd be so raw, like,
and I started getting mega bullied.

I used to get really bad dandruff
and people used to, like... OK.

..take the piss, say, like,
"Has it been snowing?" and that.

Cos obviously I had it
on the back of my blazer. Yeah.

And then I used to just look around,

and I used to think, like, the only
people that ain't getting bullied

is the people that are
this certain way.

So I sort of felt the need
to become that person.

Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah.

But then obviously, I stopped
going to school quite a lot.

Did you get excluded from school?

Yeah, like, four or five times.
Really? Yeah.

And then when you picked up a knife,

what was the thinking
around the time?

When I had a knife, I felt like
I could do anything,

and I felt like I was a god,
you know what I mean?

Nobody can touch me.

It makes you the bad man
in the situations, you get it, like?

But then push comes to shove
and you end up using it.

All of a sudden,
do you know what I mean,

this stuff becomes real.

I have a really good relationship
with a lot of the kids.

I think they can genuinely see
I want to help them to change.

But you need to get it
when they're young now.

Get to them young. What does that
actually look like?

Cos that's one of the things
that I'm trying to understand.

So, speaking to the boys,

it's as soon as they're disengaged
with any school,

the boys are telling us
that's where you start losing them.

CLAMOUR

This is our gym.

Who's there? Who's there?
Who's there?

BANGING

How are you? I'm good.

Idris. Nice to meet you.

How old are you?
Er, I'm 18.

18? Yeah. Wow.
How long have you been inside?

Three months this time.

But unfortunately, I've been
in five different prisons

before my 18th birthday.

Wow. Yeah.

For anyone that has an experience
with knife crime, the end goal

is to not have to be
in those situations any more.

Unfortunately, life's not
that easy for many people.

Yeah.

What was your school life like?

I got kicked out when I was 15.

And you got kicked out,
excluded, yeah? Yeah.

Was that the time when you got
your own knife, at that juncture?

Yeah, literally
very, very soon after.

Do you feel like if people
were caught with knives and they get

a mandatory three or four years,
do you think that would deter them?

It would have deterred some people,
but there's a lot of people

that...they don't get tired
of prison.

To them, it's just two sides
of the same coin.

You're on the road and you're
doing crime, or you're in prison

and waiting to do more crime.

It's more about protecting
the public

than about rehabilitating
these people.

But on the other hand,
you're not protecting the public,

because these people
will come out on you.

Yeah. Almost worse sometimes
because of what the energy

like is here, breeding it. Yeah.

Violence begets violence. Mm.

For people coming into prison, this
is the last part of the journey.

Yeah. There's lots and lots of
systems and processes

that have failed them in society,
and by the time they get here,

it's very costly for the public.

It's costly in terms of victims,
and it's costly in terms

of how we rehabilitate
from this point onwards,

because it costs so much per prison
place for each individual.

That was very hard to swallow.

Like, you know, finding hope
in a place like that is hard.

It's difficult because, you know,
by the time they're here...

..they've been cast away
from society.

Just had this overwhelming
feeling that...

..somewhere along the line,

if someone had intervened earlier,

these prisons would be emptier.

We have this sort of like, you know,

"Take my belt off and beat them
and they won't do it again."

That's not the way it works.

That was definitely interesting.

Two teenagers convicted
of murdering a 16-year-old boy

in a case of mistaken identity

have been sentenced to
more than 16 years in prison.

Ronan Kanda, who had just finished
his GCSEs, was walking to a friend's

house in Wolverhampton when he was
attacked from behind by the two

teenagers wielding a sword
and a large machete.

Ronan was a mistaken identity.

The intended target lives
bottom of our street.

Ronan wasn't doing anything
to anyone.

He was just walking home.

This perpetrator,

he took my child's life
thinking it's his intended target.

When we were shown the ninja sword

that went through
my child's heart...

..I fainted on the day
when I saw it.

Look at them looking at him.

It's nice pictures of him.

Yeah.

And that's my last Mother's Day
with my son.

That is typical Ronan, that is.
He was a joker.

Yeah.

It wasn't a dream.

As a mum, like,
I'd get up in the morning,

the first thing I used to do
is dive into Ronan's room,

hug him, kiss him.

Ronan was, like,
still my younger baby.

My baby, he was.

And, er, I would lie here...

"Push, come on, move up."

And he was like, "Mum!"

"No, let me just
have a quick cuddle."

And then I'll just have a quick
cuddle with him and then go

after that doing what
I needed to do.

And this side is empty now.

I get in this bed...

..but this side is empty.

Try making sense of that to me.

It's just...

The perpetrators,
what they did was...

They could have been stopped
many times.

Everyone failed.

Including police, education system.

There are other perpetrators,
families, parents.

So all these failures
are the reason my son is not

on this side of the bed today,

and I'm not able to hug him.

And these failures will continue
if they are not highlighted.

If they're not being told
that you messed up big time.

You failed in your duties.

The perpetrator and intended target
started their fight in the school.

It all starts at school
for that age group.

He was an angry young man.
The school was quite aware of it.

I was like, "He's an angry man.

"You hold on to him."
He needed help.

If somebody is troubled,
you don't leave them out on the road

to go and do whatever you want

because you don't want
that problem on you.

I'm not saying that we should
ban exclusions, but is that

an opportunity for rather than
excluding them saying, actually,

this is a moment where we could sort
of red flag and say, here's, um,

an opportunity to course correct.

This moment of exclusion is not
a moment for us to say,

"Let's just forget this kid,"

but it's actually a moment
where we can say,

"Let's help this child out. This
is the time to help that child."

Look, school exclusions sometimes
means keeping pupils safe.

I get it.

But we're not understanding
young people in a school place.

We're not approaching it
from a trauma-informed lens.

Maybe they experience a bit of
domestic violence in the household.

Maybe they were troubled
at the bus stop today

and it's acting out in the class.

So it sounds really cliche,
but I wanted to join the police

to help people and catch
burglars and robbers.

When I was younger,
my dad was in the police.

I've been in the police 19 years.

A majority of that has been
front-line policing.

SIREN

When you're front-line policing
on response, you turn up

with your lights on to the incident

that you're dealing with,
and you do stick a plaster on it.

You don't get to find out why
these problems are happening.

A lot of the young people
we work with have had a rough time.

There's been something
in their lives

that has been a trigger or a trauma
that has led them to the path

that they're on.

When they're excluded, there is no
reason to get up in the mornings.

There is no, um...

..no diversion out of life for them.

You know, it's, what are they going
to do with their time?

They'll go and hang around with
older people or people in the same

position as them, and they're going
to fill their time

probably not positively.

I run an organisation taking weapons
from people in the community

and then disposing of them.

My 14-year-old daughter said,

"Dad, can I go
to my cousin's party?"

My brother's told me,

he said there's a few guys
outside with a problem.

16-year-old party.

Yeah?

That's what I confiscated.

And if you think that's shocking...

..these things come to the party.

What's this?

There's two times in my life

where I was personally
affected by knife crime.

I was 19 years old when I got
stabbed the first time.

And the second time I got
stabbed three years after.

And I was stabbed nine times
on both occasions.

First it was like disbelief.

Then it went from disbelief
to almost why?

And then stuck in
that process there,

the anger came up, but I never,
ever was tempted to carry a knife.

Um, I just didn't see longevity
in revenge.

Do you know, how is that going
to affect other people around me?

My mother, my children, you know?

That's what I've kind of used
as a driving force

to build my organisation.

And that's why I can almost call it
like a relentless fight against

knife crime, because every time I do
something for knife crime, I feel

like I'm kind of getting back
at my personal situation.

If I can find a way for these young
people to look at me as a person

to get rid of weapons,
then that'd be amazing.

Do you know what I mean?

OK, so what we're going to do
is we'll examine them.

We just want to make sure that
there's...none of them are things

that we have interest in.
Copy that.

A young person finds it hard to walk
into a police station and drop

a knife off, you know.

Managed to pick up 5,000 weapons
over thousands of people.

No-one's ever been arrested.

No-one's ever gotten into trouble.

No-one's ever been hurt
in a collection.

What Faz is doing is important,
but I'd like the Government

to make it harder for young people
to buy knives in the first place.

MPs are debating just this,

extending a ban on zombie knives
and machetes

to include a ban on ninja swords.

Many will be, quite frankly,
shocked that such weapons

are not banned already.

This is the issue of ninja swords,
and the reason why straight swords

are more difficult to ban
is because, of course, some of them

are held by military historians
and for commemorative purposes.

It felt like there was
an attachment to swords,

which may have some sort of
traditional heritage thing.

I just couldn't understand it,
quite frankly.

We are live in Downing Street

as Rishi Sunak calls
a general election.

Now is the moment for Britain
to choose its future.

At a point where the country
will vote a new leader,

you've got to be intentional
in what you do.

If I can influence a government
or any leader to kind of,

"Yo, can you please pay attention,"
then I'm going to do that.

Hi. Good morning.

Nice to see you. Good to see you.
I'm very well.

Thanks so much. Hi, everyone.
How are you doing? Thank you.

How you been? Been all right?
Yeah.

Do you know the families
we've got around the table?

Yeah, I've met most of them. Yeah.

Um, all of them have got, you know,
experiences that they need to share

and things that can be done.

Can I ask a question, and you
can say, "Shut up, Idris."

As you turn this corner, you're on
camera as soon as you turn left.

Thank you. Thank you.

Hey. Hello.

Hi, guys. How are you?

How are you? You OK? Good.

We can't keep on meeting families
and having a version

of the same conversation.

We've got to change the system.

That's really important.
That's the spirit of it. Yeah.

This doesn't stop.
We're going to keep going.

And we have to hold the Government,

whatever government it is,
accountable.

I felt like a bit of a prop.
A bit of an impostor.

Out of everyone on that table,

I stand out as the,

"Why are you here, Idris?"
You know?

"You make films. Why are you here?"

I'm an amplification device.

It's all very well wanting
to stop knife crime.

The big question is, what can
the Government do to make

a difference for the teenagers
that are impacted?

One possible solution is at
hospital, in emergency care.

The Royal London Hospital
has pioneered a programme

after seeing young patients leaving
with no support and returning

to the same dangerous behaviour.

For some young people,

the only difference between
a victim and a perpetrator

is who won the fight that day.

The idea is to intervene
at a point where the young person

is vulnerable, injured
and open to the possibility...

..of things changing.

Samir. Idris. How are you, man?
You all right, yeah?

Nice to meet you, man. Thanks for
taking the time to see me.

Pleasure. Pleasure, man.

What you're doing,
it's an intervention, right?

This is a system that works right
at the moment of crisis here.

Reachable moment.
It's a reachable moment. OK. Yeah.

Our intervention kind of offers
support and essentially

going on the journey
with that young person.

We're not trying to remove knives
from young people's possession.

We're trying to remove it
from their heart.

A lot of young people think
they've got nothing to live for.

It's not worth it.

And it's about instilling that
value to say, bro, like,

you've got so much potential.

We've worked with young people
and said, "How are you today?"

They said,
"No-one's ever asked me that."

No-one's ever asked them,
"How are you?"

Mm. "How are you?"
So for me it's basics, man.

Like basics, especially for growing
up in a dysfunctional family.

So nurturing is very important.
It's very important.

This here is a programme. We're
working a multi-agency approach

that gets our young people safer,
but then hopefully go on

to live prosperous lives.

And in that I feel like
there needs to be a much deeper

understanding of why.
Yeah. First and foremost.

Right? Yeah.
Why is this happening? 100%.

Poverty is number one
at the forefront of, um,

violence within the UK.

Whether that goes down the throats
of people or not, it's the reality.

Yeah, we've got a case
at the moment -

it's a young adult, um,
that was stabbed multiple times,

in an East London borough.

Quite a complex case,
quite a lot of childhood traumas.

We'll try to identify services
to ensure that, you know,

he has that ongoing support.

We've supported with education,
getting them back into mainstream

school, mental health support.

Support around employment.

Some young people don't have ID.

We've got them ID.

Sounds very trivial, but ID opens
up the door and that was £35

that they don't have.

So the opportunity to operate
with them in the community

starts to build trust.

And they're like,
"Oh, you're really in my life."

It is an incredible intervention,
but doesn't change the fact

that someone is already
seriously injured.

Are there ways to intervene earlier?

OK, what happens
before the stabbing?

And can we do that guidance
from that junction

before there's an incident?

It's like having those things
pop up in the back of your garden.

If you decide to just chop it
and chop it and chop it

every time you see it grow again,

then what do you think
is going to keep happening?

You're going to have to
keep chopping it.

If you take it out by the root,
nine times out of ten,

it's not going to grow back again.

Because of my youth work,
I got into the world of horses,

and I feel like
it's helped me level myself.

The environment I come from,
there's a lot of violence.

What was so astonishing
about it for me was,

if I can communicate with such a big
animal, that can actually cause me

a lot of damage if it wants to,

and the fact that I'm not
having to be forceful or violent

with it, it's like,
"Hold on a minute.

"Why should I need to be violent
in any other form of communicating

"with other people?"

Idris, follow me.

So, like, people at home watching
this documentary would be like,

"Wait, how are we here?"

Obviously, people definitely
don't expect this at all.

I mean, it's not normal to see
a South Londoner just chilling

around horses in a yard.

So let me ask you, like,
how has your upbringing

lead you to where you are now?

I had, like, a mentor
for over ten years.

My mentor, he was provided to me
by a youth service I used to go to

on a regular basis.

There was a lot of lessons
and advice that was given to me

by that individual.

He's known me since I was, like...

..11, 12.

What was it like at 12
having a mentor?

It was strange at first,
but then it's like, when you start

having conversations, you start
to see it completely differently.

Yeah. Because then you start
to realise, wait, there's other

people in the world that actually
care about who I am as an individual

and actually want to see me
do something positive.

Yeah, yeah. Know what I mean?
And it's like, if you're in

an environment where all you're
being role modelled and taught

is wrong, then if that's what
you know, that's you're going to do.

You know what I mean?
Yeah. Yeah.

I don't know much about
what happened to your brother.

My eldest brother,
he was out and about one evening,

bumped into a certain group
of individuals.

It's believed that they had a bit
of a dispute, and it ended with him

being knifed to death.

Your mentor had a lot to do
with helping you not basically go

for revenge or anything like that.

100%. 100%.

These are the reasons why
I'm not sitting in jail right now.

That's the best way to put it.

Obviously helped me at the time.

Understanding that you doing
what you were going to do

ain't bringing nobody back.

If I didn't have a role model
like him, my life

would look very different.

Jhemar, you know, he's a lovely kid.

And this intervention has
really changed a life around.

And you could see it in his soul.

You can see it when you meet him.

So that's a really good example
of mentorship gone right

and done really well.

The more people I can get talking
about this, the more likely

change will happen.

Banging the pot
and making noise works.

Someone's got to take advantage
of a soap box.

Someone's got to take advantage
of the reach. And I have those.

About to head into the palace.
See the King.

I'm always sort of thankful
for him setting up

the Prince's Trust regardless.

Like, it's changed lives.

It changed...changed mine.
It gave me an opportunity.

They gave me a grant when I was 16

to go to the National Youth
Music Theatre and study.

Thinking back there, I was filling
out the form and thinking,

"This is stupid.
He's not going to choose me."

I came home from school,
my mum said, "You got a letter."

It was a white envelope,
handwritten.

"Idris Elba, Esquire."

And it had the royal seal on it.

I was like, "Nah, no way."

I opened it up
and in the letter was a cheque.

If I hadn't gotten
the Prince's Trust,

I wouldn't have had that experience,
because we couldn't afford to go.

And it definitely put me
on the right map.

You know, on the right trajectory.

Where is he coming from?

He's coming from the right, sir.

The King is going to actually
come and greet you at the car.

What?! Yeah.

No. They're going to open the door,
and he's going to be there.

No, man. Which is why
we cannot be late.

Are you serious? Yeah.

Any sign?

There's a lot of traffic.

Are you going to greet him
at the door, sir?

Yes. I'm waiting for him to arrive.

DOORBELL

Good morning. Good afternoon.

Sir. Good to see you.

It's been such a difficult nut
to crack, hasn't it?

It really is.
The campaigning continues.

I'm so thankful to have your ear.

I've always believed that, as
an adolescent, what you really need

is channelling into
something constructive.

It's my honour, I think,
to have young people at the table,

OK, having their voice
a part of this.

It seems to me the great ambition
now should be to be able to go into,

you know, to try and dig people out
from all the most...

the hardest areas to reach.

It's really interesting
just being around, you know,

that sort of level of exposure.

And I didn't realise that we'd be
sitting next to the King and people

from the community discussing it.

I didn't think that would happen.

You know, if every
newspaper tomorrow says,

"Oh, there was a moment where
the King and the young people

"and Idris all sat around
the table,"

that's what we need to see.

You know, the media have
a massive role to play in this,

cos they've got the loudest soapbox
amongst us all.

And I'm just like, um...

..I'm very hopeful right now.

This Government has
been elected to deliver nothing less

than national renewal.

With a new government in power,

they've invited people who know
the reality of knife crime

to meet every two months
to influence policy.

Actor Idris Elba
is in Downing Street today.

He's taking part in
a knife crime summit.

It's rare to actually be here
at the beginning of it,

of this documentary.

We didn't know this was going
to happen. So here we are.

Got my notes.

I'm going to speak
for three minutes.

I don't know what I'm going to say,

but I'm just going to say it
from the heart.

I find it amazing that people
who've been through experiences

the like of which some people
around this table have been through

are able to come forward.

You have to be brutally frank
with us,

today and every time we meet.

Five or six years ago, I started
to speak up and say something.

Five years later, six years later,
though, unfortunately,

we're still talking.

Um, and, you know, talk is good,

but action is more important.

We need joined up thinking.

And there are all kinds of people
here today from organisations,

charities, victims, youth services,
health services, police, education,

Home Secretary, because everyone
here has something to offer this.

And, um, let's hold ourselves
to task.

My name is Pooja Kanda.

I'm here today to tell you
about my beautiful son, Ronan.

Ronan didn't stand a chance.

He tried to run for the house,
which was only two doors away.

He didn't reach his house
and he dropped there on the road.

I finally believe
that I've been heard...

..and that's good.

That's good that I was there
and was able to express myself.

And I hope the Government listens.

BIG BEN CHIMES

To the House of Commons,
where Labour's first Budget

for 14 years will be delivered
by the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

Ms Reeves is expected to say
her priority

is to invest, invest, invest.

The interventions that I've been
learning about -

the hospitals, the schools,
the community - they all cost money.

Government says the budgets
are tight. We get it.

But it's not just about asking
for more funding,

it's about what you do
with the money there is.

Saying, "Knives end lives.

"Knives get you sent to prison."

Everybody carrying a knife
knows that.

Everybody involved in a fight
knows that.

So we all need to do our best
to identify who's at risk,

help them with showing them that
there are other options available.

Carrying a knife by itself is...

..I mean, kind of is suicidal.

I guess it was just the environment
I grew up in.

My mum had custody of me,
and I got kicked out of there

for the stuff I used
to be involved with.

I moved into my nan's.

Got kicked out of there cos of
the stuff I was involved in.

My school, I got kicked out there.

And then I was out of school
for a year.

I have autism and ADHD.

It just makes it...
I didn't know that -

so it makes it hard to speak...

..to anyone.

In Coventry, the police are piloting
a new approach

that seems to have potential.

It's called CIRV.

CIRV is the Community Initiative
to Reduce Violence.

They're seeking out teenagers
they suspect are on a path

that leads to knife crime.

Then they step in
before a stabbing is committed,

build a relationship
and suggest opportunities

that connect with that teenager.

This programme, it is the most
rewarding job I've done

since I've been in the police
in 19 years.

Children or young people
who carry knives,

I can honestly say it's a way
of life that the majority of them

don't want to be in,
but they just...

They're so stuck,
they don't know how to get out.

So it's kind of guiding them out,
mentoring them out.

We work with education
and career opportunities.

It's about finding something
that they enjoy

and showing them
what they can achieve.

It's a consistent adult figure
in their life

to guide them and lead them
onto a different path.

It definitely works.

Jayden was referred into
the programme after concerns

that he might have been involved
in gangs, carrying knives, etc.

He was a hard nut
to crack initially.

Very quiet, as are most of them,
initially.

So it was just finding a way
of breaking down barriers

and kind of just forming
a bit of a relationship

and a trusting kind of bond
between the two of us.

Jayden, how are you doing?
This is Idris. Nice to meet you.

Good to meet you. How are you?

I'm good. You?

I'm all right. I can't complain.

I know that you've, you know,
been working with Laura

and the CIRV team for a little bit,
and I'm just curious.

I just wanted to hear
how you found it

and, you know,
how you're getting on with it.

Yeah.

Well, when I first joined
the CIRV programme,

I had no confidence in myself.

And, like, well,
she helped me out a lot.

Yeah, it's helped me a lot.

It's helped me a lot.

So you don't carry a knife?

No, I used to.

I used to carry a knife,
and I used to be scared.

Some people, they say
they feel naked without it.

I felt naked without it.

You've got to make that change. Mm.

And it's hard to.
It's proper hard to.

I'm still...
I'm still struggling now,

but I'm finding my way.

I'm finding my way, innit?

I heard you was an Arsenal fan
as well.

Me?

He's stirring!

What?
THEY LAUGH

Now you're chatting.
Now you're chatting.

Now you're chatting, Laura.

Come on. You set me up.

LAURA LAUGHS

Wh-What team?

Villa.

Villa? Yeah. OK.

Cos of my great-grandad.

All my life, I've loved football.

I'm joining an academy soon,
as well. That's amazing.

How does that...? Do you get
in contact with the academy?

Yeah, I just sent an email
and just said who we are,

what the programme was about.

The programme's giving you ways
to figure out

how to get past the bad days, yeah?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, loads.

And then I guess, like,
what you're doing with your sports,

that's almost another anchor,
isn't it?

Yeah, yeah.

Anything that's good for me,
she'll make sure it happens.

But you're already talking
about the opportunities

the academy might give him
in terms of qualifications,

and one of them could be
a coaching qualification.

And he's already said
the other week, didn't you?

Yeah, I'd love to coach.
I'd love to be a coach.

That seems like
a really hopeful step.

Mate, nice meeting you, man.

Thanks for your time, yeah?

We're off. Laura, thank you
very much. Thank you.

Really nice meeting you. And you.

What was great is coming here
and seeing a version of hope

with the CIRV programme.

You know, the CIRV programme
actually really ticks

a lot of the boxes that we've been
talking about.

And then with stories like Jayden,
you're kind of saying to yourself,

"All right, is there a version
that happens nationwide?

"Is there a version that can be done
at a much, much larger scale?"

That is going to be a massive
logistical conundrum,

but it is so worth it
when you watch a kid like that

who a year ago was struggling,
who's, you know...

He's just this far away
from going back to his old roots,

and then he's got this programme
that can help him, right?

And that's...

I guess, you know,
when people watch this film,

say, "What's the point of it?
What's the point?"

Well, this is the point,
that there is hope,

there's got to be ways
that this can be done.

You know, no issue is permanent.

There's got to be a way out of it.

This is too dangerous
to be not speak about it.

It could happen to another child.

We just need to get it right.

What I want people to understand

is that it takes a village
to raise a child.

What's happening with young people

is they are burning down
that village

cos they're not feeling
the embrace of that place.

And I'm inviting you to be part
of this village,

and play into it, and invest
in our young people.

There's a bigger picture
that needs looking at.

Everybody deserves a chance
at the end of the day,

and it is about that chance.

It's a no-brainer to me,
to be honest.

I value life a lot more now.

There's some beauty in the world
for me...

..that wasn't there before.