Eddie Marsan is in Tower Hamlets, at the impressive offices of local charity Streets of Growth. Alongside Darren Way, CEO of the charity that works with young people to combat gang and knife crime, Marsan is spending the morning taking Big Issue on a tour of Tower Hamlets.
Marsan and Way go back a long way. They grew up on neighbouring council estates off Bethnal Green Road, went to the same local youth clubs and night clubs in the early 1980s, and their lives have intersected at key points since – culminating in Marsan becoming an ambassador for Streets of Growth last year. In the wake of recent comments by Conservative MP Paul Scully, a former Minister for London, saying that parts of Tower Hamlets were “no-go areas”, Marsan is keen to show why he is so passionate about his manor.
It is the reason he is talking about Streets of Growth today, rather than his role in Amy Winehouse biopic or big budget TV series alongside Michael Douglas. Because the words stung. “It’s populist, racist bullshit. That’s what it is,” says Marsan, never one to pull his punches. “And those words have real impact
