Ronan Bennett

Ronan Bennett (born 14 January 1956) is a Northern Irish novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his work as showrunner, writer and executive producer of the drug and gang related crime drama television series Top Boy. His other writing credits include the 1997 crime film Face, the 2009 Michael Mann crime biopic Public Enemies and the 2017 BBC historical drama miniseries Gunpowder. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, he moved to live in Hackney, East London with his wife and two children. Inspired by witnessing a twelve-year-old boy dealing drugs at his local Tesco supermarket in Hackney, Bennett created and wrote Top Boy, a British crime drama television series focusing on gang culture and drug dealing in a predominately-black council estate in East London. Originally airing for two series on Channel 4, the show was cancelled in 2014 but was revived as an original Netflix series, produced by rap artist Drake. Background Bennett, the son of William H. and Geraldine Bennett, was born in Belfast, but was raised in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland, in a devout Roman Catholic family. He attended St Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School, Belfast, on the Lower Falls Road, where he became politically active. He was accepted for a place at Queen's University, before being arrested for suspected involvement in an IRA robbery. Long Kesh remand In 1974, when he was 19, Bennett was convicted by a no-jury Diplock court of murdering Inspector William Elliott, a 49-year-old police officer in the Royal Ulster Constabulary, during an Official IRA robbery at the Ulster Bank in The Diamond shopping area in Rathcoole, close to his home in Merville Garden Village, on 6 September 1974. His conviction was declared unsafe in 1975 and he was released from Long Kesh prison.