20/03/2017 Inside Out London

Hello, I'm Matthew Wright, you're watching Inside Out London.

Here's what's coming up on tonight's show -

With more and more nightclubs being forced to close, we ask,

could this be the end for London's clubland?

Whenever there is an incident, rather than having a discussion to

solve that, there is an attempt to regulate and close down and that

doesn't solve our problems but it will end up shutting down our

culture. We meet a man who's given

up his life in London to help We have some of the families here in

our temporary relief centre and some of their stories are absolutely

heartbreaking. And EastEnders star

Jessie Wallace says farewell This is such a great school. I've

been raving about it since I left. My heart is here and it's going to

be a gaping hole. Not so long ago, London's clubland

was a lively, thriving scene - with music venues and dance floors

thick on the ground. But in the last few years

many have shut down, prompting the Mayor to appoint

the capital's first Night Czar ? comedian Amy Lame ? to help

revitalise the sector. Mark Jordan went to find out what's

behind the wave of closures - I should warn you that his film

contains some flashing images. When dark falls over London,

its ?28 billion night economy draws people from across the globe,

but there's trouble We've finally opened up the 24-hour

night tube, but where to go? In the past decade half London's

nightclubs and 40% of live music Gentrifying neighbourhoods

are silencing the noisy. Anger too about

licensing and closures. GQ magazine said London has

the worst nightclubs in Europe ? "policed to within an

inch of their lives". I'm the Night Czar

working with the Mayor. So the Mayor appointed

Night Czar Amy Lame. As Night Czar I have overarching

goals ? to make London the most diverse and dynamic 24-hour city

in the world! The coolest job in City Hall

is part-time and walks a tightrope - We had issues, so we have had a few

restrictions put onto our license. Tonight in Kingston,

Amy's being shown the club When this first came in and police

said, "You have to have it." Aside from random breathalyser

tests, an extraordinary Everyone has a driving

license or passport. All this in a nation

that refuses ID cards! We'll check them in the queue

as well to see if they are drunk. We may put them out of the queue

before they get to the scanner. Then the second stage

is round the corner I'm sure going through airport style

security does put people off Too much security ?

we're good people! Facing cuts, London's former police

commissioner said fewer pubs and clubs would help

reduce police workload. The Met sees no contradiction

in airport security and fun. Where there are reasonable measures

to reduce and mitigate the risk of these sorts of things happening,

I think that's sensible. You wouldn't travel on an airplane

and not expect security ? We live in a world of risk

aversion is the key thing. Police is all health and safety

and whenever there is an incident rather than use discretion to solve

that ? there's an attempt to regulate and close down and that

doesn't solve our problems, But it's not all

about law and order. Powerful other forces

stalk London's nightlife. Hands up who wants to live next

to a noisy music venue? For over a decade the loud

much-loved George Tavern, It's noisy, so why is

Tower Hamlets suggesting developers turn derelict buildings

around the venue into luxury flats? 45 flats ? 3am music

license ? really lively. We would have endless

complaints ? nightmare - and when you get a complaint,

environmental health have to deal with it

and they take your licence away. This pub would not

survive without music. The council votes on the plan

later this month, noise has closed Developers get everything.

I'm one person fighting this. They have pots of money!

I just feel we are not appreciated. Across in Shoreditch, under the last

arch of a bygone railway, the Village Underground venue feared

closure as luxury The Night Czar has come

to support a radical solution. The fear is the noise we make

will be unviable for new neighbours The bass line ? couldn't get

a night's sleep ? so in a ruck with new neighbours,

that was our fear. Worried about Shoreditch losing

the very vibe attracting developers, the council made a radical

demand - that new hotels Hackney helped us negotiate those

into planning conditions. So the hotel moving in next door

to a music venue cannot have venue closed down as they've made noise

for a decade and it's been fine. The Night Czar wants this

rolled out across London. But just up the road

a different problem - The Passing Clouds venue helped give

Dalston the cool that made it When the tenancy ended,

the rent tripled. Although the club was popular

and successful, it wasn't going to match the potential return

for residential development. We've invested in the vibrancy

of the borough for ten years. Just one property developer rips

out of the community. I suppose we look like the ugly face

of capitalism where we bought the building and are kicking

the tenant out - it's not the case. Hackney over last ten years has

probably quadrupled in value. Name me any private landlord that

will underlet his property by 50% - Passing Cloud supporters are trying

to crowd fund buying the place. Others have given up having a base,

LWE deck out old buildings They say promoters are the last to

get paid and the first to be blamed. Over the decades ? how many drunken

fights have broken out between men Well, here's one that

shut down an entire club! Its New Year's Eve and a ?200

a ticket cabaret turns into a brawl over a girl at celebrity haunt

Rah Rah Rooms, Piccadilly. Throw a punch and that's

the start of a general brawl. It got nasty.

Broken glass was used. Police knew who threw

the first punch. They arrested no one,

but then asked Westminster to revoke the club's license,

even claiming an underage 17-year-old was present.

Since proven untrue. There had been just one

other attack last year. Basically, from 1st January

we've not opened since ? Because we have a license

that is attackable ? that's To the extent that now,

after ten years of serious investment in Westminster ?

and loving the time I personally won't reinvest

into Westminster. It's like having a gun

against your head. There is nothing we can

do to prevent someone All we can do is

control and manage it. Westminster Council declined

the police closure request but heavily restricted entry hours.

Alan's selling up. The Met deny targeting venues

rather than criminals. If you have a responsibly run night

time economy premises that are abiding by the conditions

of their license and actively working with us on a voluntary basis

to make it safe - I can't think of any example where we would come

down on a single isolated incident. In fact the approach we take

is balanced and graduated. He's

gonna put on a good smile. London's new Night Czar has no

wand but a lot of hope. My first three months on the job has

really been spent talking to people. It's us v them.

It's the police v the punters. There is another American

on the other side of the pond building a wall.

I want to build bridges. Now then ? still to come

on tonight's show. # Oklahoma! Acting was put forward

to me a couple of times by friends and my mum. Why the Poor School?

Simply it was the only place I found I could do a full-time job and beard

to come in and do the training in the evening.

The war in Syria is something most of us have only experienced

through our TV screens, but for one Londoner,

it's something that's taken over his entire life.

Back in 2012, Tauqir Sharif boarded an aid convoy to Syria.

He planned to stay for just a couple of months, but now five years

on, he's still there, living and working alongside

Throughout December, Tauqir filmed his daily life

helping displaced Syrians through the harsh winter months.

Attention guys, attention guys, we just got word on the radio

We are going to have to drive, with the lights off.

I'm driving a British Ford transit, you know, the backbone of Britain,

we've got a British ambulance driving in front of us.

And, in front of that, we've got one of our school buses.

We've just had a call that some of the evacuees

who are coming out of Aleppo, have just been stranded and left

on the street in Idlib, so we are on our way,

as an emergency convoy, to try and get the people out

from Idlib and to safety, in a sense.

About 12.45 in the night right now and the Syrian regime

So the Russian generals are stopping on that side,

and then the buses are continuing on to us over here.

Everyone is trying to keep warm, because it is one of the coldest

nights of winter so far. There is still bombing

in the background, so we will see what happens.

20 buses have just arrived. It's absolute chaos.

There are a lot of people here, they don't know

It's so many people, and it's cold, it's wet,

it's being dropped off in the middle of the night at 3am.

That was a first-time experience, I've never experienced that before.

Just the look of terror and fear on people's faces.

I mean we've got old people and small children, and women.

All scared, you can see the looks on their faces they don't know

where they are going, don't know what the future holds.

These people that we've got in the ambulance now

they are basically people who have nobody.

We've found some places for people to go.

But it's 6am and we are supposed to be going back to get another

flood of people and we don't have another place, so I've brought some

Some of the families here in our temporary relief

centre and their stories are absolutely heartbreaking.

We've got this sister here, she is a widow, her husband

was killed but many of her family members were killed.

She's here sitting with some of her children and she just showed

us a video of her son, who is basically under

They were unable to pull him out, you can just see his head,

covered in blood and it's so difficult to comprehend

It doesn't seem real and they are right in front of us.

This is the kind of stuff that these people went through.

So they are saying they lived in a four-storey building,

and this is what was left of the building.

They left nine people under the rubble.

Got to make sure she has her niqab on because you are coming in.

This is Khadijah, she is my eldest, she is three years old,

This is Muatassim, whose two, he is grumpy at the moment

And this is Ruqayyah, who is ten months.

We are Londoners born and bred, so for us London

Even the kids talk about home even though they don't even know home.

So we left London late 2012, on an aid convoy.

We chose to come to Syria because of the gruesome

scenes we were seeing on our television screens.

They are just afraid on the radio right now that we might drive

into Syrian regime territory by mistake because we are very

It's always a bad sign here when there are no

That guy was just waving at us crazily in that car,

and he was driving in the opposite direction so, I don't

know what that means. Probably means stop what you're

The evacuation of thousands of civilians and rebels

Syrian state TV says armed terrorists destroy

It's not clear how long the suspension will last.

Everybody's running. Bad news man, bad news.

The Red Crescent and all the organiser here with IHH,

they have basically said they fear that an airstrike is going to take

place so they've just moved all the vehicles

because there were over a 100 ambulances and coaches waiting.

Tauqir as a young person he was very active, and you could say a little

And then one day he decided to go with one of his friends on one

of these aid convoys, and when he went to Gaza

for the first time, the plight of the people there I think

It makes you proud, that he is doing this.

When he was growing up in Newham, there was an incident

where he got stabbed, and we thought we might lose him.

Which would we rather have? Him helping people and losing his

life, or dying in the streets of Newham or wherever else?

As I said we are human, we are communal beings we want to be

It's not going to happen at the moment but God

wiling it will happen, one day, one day.

We've got loads of families that have come from the south of Aleppo.

We need to get them emergency food packs.

Come in the warehouse, the guys are working right now

These are tins from the UK, we're going to load

them into the ambulance and get them distributed.

We only have snow storms like this maybe once or twice a year

and the current crisis at the moment that we are dealing with,

with all of these refugees coming out, they don't have places to stay,

These people are coming from their homes, they were living

in homes in Aleppo, and now they are basically coming

to the streets or to refugee camps that are really in a poor state.

It's an unfortunate situation because right now as I said

there is a large influx of refugees and we are borrowing tents.

We are asking families who have tents to put

Look how cold it is, the mountains are all covered with snow,

and there is nowhere to put these people.

Being here in Syria, has definitely taken an emotional

toll not just on me but also on the family.

If we ever do leave, I think we will remember Syria as our home.

The people have been so welcoming, so supportive to us.

Syria will always be a part of us now.

We hear a lot about how posh actors ? your Cumberbatches,

your Redmaynes - now dominate London's acting scene.

But there's one drama school which specialises in training actors

who can't afford to study full-time ? the aptly named Poor School.

It's turned out many successful stage and screen actors ? but now,

after running for 32 years, it's facing closure.

Jo Good, who has trod the West End boards herself, has the story.

If I say Kings Cross you'll probably think of the bustling railway

stations taking people to the far north or Europe and certainly not

a place where you might be reminded of the West End's Theatreland.

But in the middle of all that, down this dingy old alley lies

a creaky door that leads to a unique and long-serving drama school.

This is a place where people with day jobs follow their dreams

and go to evening classes to learn how to act, in the hope that

maybe one day they'll tread the West End boards

These are the latest set of students to attend the Poor School.

It's been here 32 years and has produced some

It was the brainchild of Paul Caister and he is

still running it today, but why call it the Poor School?

I didn't want to call it the Kings Cross Academy

of Dramatic Art and actually when you start something, what to

In the end I liked the Poor School because it implied

The school gets no government grants nor is it a charity.

It relies on student fees and the thing that really makes it

different is that its classes are evenings and weekends,

which means you can earn money in another career at the same time

as learning to become an actor, so it attracts those that otherwise

may never have had the chance to tread the boards.

Taxi drivers' sons and daughters of Lords.

People who have just come out of jail.

I would train anyone and give anyone an acting class who wanted to act.

I wouldn't care where they came from or what they'd done.

I was a consultant in a construction industry.

More recently I was working in the advertising industry

buying media plots online, so placing adverts on Facebook

For the last nine years I've been a nanny and I've done that ever

since I can remember, really, when I left school.

I didn't really have the option to go to drama school

because my parents basically couldn't afford to send me.

I found the Poor School and I was like, "Oh I'm

going to do part-time, so I found a job

I had to take a huge pay cut because if I wanted the school I'm

going to have to stick at it and I don't want to get three months

in and feel I'm too tired. I can't do it.

Acting was something that was put forward to me a few times

by various different people, friends, and my mam.

Why not one of the other drama schools?

Well, quite simply it was the only place I found where I could work

during the day, keep a full-time job and be able to come in and do

Jessie Wallace actually sacrificed a full-time career to come here -

a decision that turned to be one of pure genius.

Otherwise known as Kat Slater from EastEnders, she's

the Poor School's most well-known success story and has kindly come

back today to tell me what it did for her.

Has it always been this glamorous, Jessie?

Bring back the old days walking through this door.

Jessie, did you come from a background where

you were expected to go into the theatre?

No, no-one in my family were actors or showbusiness, anything like that.

They couldn't have lent you the money for a grant

No, no, my dad was upset that I wanted to be an actor

because I had a good job at the time.

I trained for two years to do make-up and wigs and I went straight

to the RSC and I was doing really well but then I decided

to be an actress and do what I was passionate about.

I was prepared to give up anything for it.

Today's students are nervously preparing for an event

Jessie made quite an impression back in the day.

Did you know she was going to be singled out?

No, not at all. There's no way of knowing.

She did a piece from Playhouse Creatures and Nell Gwynne

oranges or something, wasn't it? Oysters.

Oysters, yeah, and it just hit the spot and actually

your job on EastEnders - tell me if I'm wrong -

came directly from that? I think it did yeah.

I got the call saying they were workshopping

a new family into EastEnders. They get a number of actors and put

them in a room and give them each a scenario.

The scenario they gave me would be the gobby one that's

You know, the tart with a heart, I suppose and then they'll give

someone else a scenario and see how you work together and that

Top theatrical agents still take this place very seriously indeed

There are a lot of kids from drama school who miss appointments.

They arrive late, they come in to see me, they got a cup

of coffee in their hand or a McDonald's and you think,

hang on second, you're coming to see a, well,

what I would consider a top agent. Why would you do that?

These people who have been in different industries have a much

better idea of how to behave and how to give themselves that

Do you think here in this Poor School you're more

likely to find characters? Oh yeah, definitely.

I think here you see there's not an homogenised zone of people,

whereas some of the drama schools you think, well, they're all 20,

they're all from a middle class background, they all look quite

beautiful but are they going to do anything?

I love people and places that give those

a chance who otherwise might

otherwise not get one, so this is most definitely

It's just sad that I'm here just prior to its closure.

But these are to be the last courses and close it will.

Its founder feels it's lived its natural life

and he doesn't believe anyone else could run it but what hole will it

If somebody said Rada was closing or Guildhall,

Have we got the same attitude about the Poor School?

I don't know about the other drama schools.

I just know a lot of people that have been there,

but my heart is here and it's going to be a gaping hole.

I wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for Paul and when I got

Best Newcomer at the NTAs, I thanked Paul because he taught me

everything and you can't forget the person that got you there.

Wishing the Poor School's final class graduates a great success.

And that's it for this week's Inside Out.

Don't forget, if you missed any of tonight's programme

and want to catch up on iPlayer, then just head to our website.

The address is bbc.co.uk/InsideOut ? just click on London.

Thanks very much for watching ? I'll see you again soon.