Up in Flames: Mr Reeves and the Riots

On August 8th, the riots came to Croydon, South London.

RIOTERS SHOUT

Using mobile phones, bystanders record the turmoil.

'You've got young people

'that have got so much bottled up inside of them

'that they're using this opportunity to let off.

'You've got a lot of young people out here that are just sheer evil.

'It's horrible out here, it's, it's like a war zone.

'It is nasty out here.'

-SIREN BLARES

-In the next 12 hours, 2,000 rioters take to the streets.

And a crowd gathers at Reeves Corner,

named after the town's oldest family-run business.

Jesus Christ, this is absolutely crazy!

As local people look on in horror,

Maurice Reeves is completely unaware of the destruction.

It was my wedding anniversary and I was up in London,

in the National Gallery.

We had a lovely meal out.

I came back and put the television on.

This is BBC news with a special programme on the riots

which have spread across London and to other major cities in England.

And with the next second, there was my building on fire.

Those memories are etched in my mind.

Dreadful. It was cruel, really cruel.

They didn't steal anything - wanton destruction.

For two days following the riots, Croydon continues to burn.

Local people start to clear up the wreckage of their community.

Demolition crews move in, knocking down damaged buildings,

including the one in which Maurice Reeves' family business

had existed for nearly 150 years.

What a dreadful state.

This feels devastating.

A cruel blow struck in your heart, isn't it?

My grandfather lived here, my father lived here

and my great-grandfather lived here.

I just think they're looking above

and wondering what on earth is going on with Croydon.

Within a week of the riots,

despite a recent heart scare,

80-year-old Maurice Reeves has made a dramatic decision.

Dan, we've got those lamps coming in, haven't we?

Yeah, they've been ordered today...

After 15 years in retirement, he's back,

leading the company through this crisis.

Well, I think they're doing what I said.

Yes, they've put one there, the one in the window I'm going to take out.

Though badly damaged, this second, smaller store survived the riot.

We've got to condense some of this down.

Over the road we were noted for sofas and three-piece suites and...

we can't stock everything.

Some of it's got to go!

My old man, he needs to have a few days off, I think.

He's getting on a bit. He was in hospital only a month ago.

I don't want anything happening to him, that would be disastrous.

So he needs to just take his foot off the gas a little bit.

-INTERVIEWER:

-How are you feeling in yourself?

Every time I go downstairs, people want me, so, em...

I try and stay away from everybody at the moment!

That's it in a nutshell.

Yeah, I'll tell Maurice. I'll tell him, OK, bye-bye.

The Germans are here.

The Germans are here! >

And they're very, very nice, apparently.

As well as working out a survival strategy for the company,

Maurice has found himself thrown into the media spotlight.

I've forgotten whether they're Russian or German.

They're German, aren't they?

Well, that's the front door, here.

I've been walking over here for nearly 80 years.

Been like my home, but it's all gone, finished.

I saw riots in Croydon and I thought,

"Well, I hope it's not near my shop."

It was my wedding anniversary.

I was...at home.

The demand for press and media interviews is relentless.

So, too, is the attention of public figures.

I'll never forget talking to Maurice Reeves - 100 years of hard work

burnt to the ground in just a few hours.

'When I was a schoolboy,

'if we picked up a stone and threw it at a policeman,'

we were put in jail.

What would you say to those people?

I don't know what to say, I'm just astounded by the severe violence.

This happens and we don't understand it.

My old man's out there.

He's done a good job, we wheel him out.

And he's quite good in front of a camera, I think.

Myself and Trevor keep it a little bit back,

cos we've got to try and take some money again.

I'm getting more tired, but we'll be having a break soon, I hope.

Anyway, if you excuse me, I have to go and do what I should be doing.

Thank you.

Two weeks after the riot,

Maurice has collapsed during a routine hospital appointment.

No, I'm not happy at all.

Far from it.

I don't want to be here, really.

I've got a job to do.

Em...but that's life.

I can't do anything about it.

I remember coming into the hospital and thinking,

"Oh, all these poor people here,"

I was walking around, next minute I'm here! HE LAUGHS

Very depressing.

HE SNIFFS

But I've just got to get well and get out and get down there again.

PHONES RING

Whilst Maurice is in hospital, his sons Graham and Trevor

try and keep the business going.

I've lost me stapler.

I think what's happened with Trevor is that he's got...

We're meant to pay all the people today.

But the wages people...I don't think he's got the wages through to them.

So he's in a flap cos we've got to get that done.

If not, we'll have... Well, we did have a riot

but we don't want to have a riot with the staff, do we?

This finds out how much money we've physically lost in that shop

and we can't find out until I finish this.

There's some products here which haven't sold well

and they're on my stock sheets.

I certainly don't want to wish a fire on anybody

but if these items WERE in a fire...

..I would've been very happy to see them go,

cos they are nightmare, I can't get rid of them for love nor money!

Those two shops...

Dear, oh, dear.

I remember designing these letters.

A few days after his discharge from hospital,

Maurice is at home, convalescing.

There's the...shop

I've actually written on there, "January, 1987."

I adored that shop.

Of course, I spent all my life doing it...

..only to be destroyed in one night.

This would never have occurred when I was young.

The contrast of people looting, where in my day, they were -

in the Commonwealth -

they were shot on sight.

And there's no reason to say it's going to stop,

because what's the politicians done about it?

Well, they're giving heavier sentences now,

which they should have done before and they're trying to stop it.

But it's a bit late.

It's not just the fear that this could happen again

that worries Maurice,

it's also the damage done to Croydon's reputation,

and after just over three weeks, he feels frustrated

that Croydon and the riots seem to have been forgotten.

Unfortunately, Croydon gets portrayed on television

as a pretty rough, bad area.

But I have the ability because...

..I have all these people coming to see me from the Government,

and things like that - to change it.

Yes, I think it would be a wonderful thing to do.

I just have the feeling that the politicians see the riot -

"Now we'll move on to do something else," and they forget about it.

This is such an important point in our history.

-We've never seen riots like this, ever before.

-No.

It's no good passing on and getting on to the economics of the country,

-let's deal with the riots and put it right.

-Yes.

PHONE RINGS

-INTERVIEWER:

-What are you doing, Elaine?

I'm trying to find out the name of the people

that was up at Broad Green that lost their homes.

Em...Maurice has asked me to do this,

cos he's quite keen to meet up with them.

This is the local paper,

so I'm going to try and see...

perhaps they could put us in contact with her.

Does that give a name?

Em...Charlene.

A young mum.

It's a few days later, and Charlene's been in touch

and offered to show Maurice the remains of her home.

OK, this is my flat, here.

My heart's going already and I'm not even through the door!

On August 8th, she and her five-year-old son

found themselves surrounded,

trapped by the riot on London Road.

Dear, oh, dear.

-What a tragic mess.

-Makes my heart beat every time I come in.

Skylight.

So how was this set alight?

-You know that there was a gold shop on the corner?

-Yes.

It burnt right through that building and then burnt over

-and only got on this side of the...

-Just this side.

-..of the roof.

That's my bathroom, as well.

-Yeah.

-That's got...no roof at all.

-Well, you had a nice home here, didn't you?

-Yeah.

And then it was a ruin and it still smells like

something's still burning in here,

it's really fresh.

My son's room -

but what's so shocking is

where that fell, the ceiling,

it was right where he would have been sleeping.

Was that where he was?

How long did it take you to get him out?

When I went downstairs to see what was going on,

I took him out with me.

-You took him out with you?

-So he was downstairs anyway.

This is my living room.

My goodness. What devastation.

I hope you didn't buy that from Reeves - we're not taking it back!

-No!

-SHE LAUGHS

No, luckily.

Just watch your step, though.

I was sitting up here, looking out the window, watching it.

So, I could see them coming out the back, here.

-With loads of musical stuff, from...

-Looting the shop.

Yeah, from that shop there.

They were just throwing it in the bins.

Then they smashed through and tried to get into the jewellery shop.

They were all under here and all the way up that road.

There must have been a lot of people around here involved in it.

There was hundreds of people, hundreds.

People were laughing and joking like it was funny.

-But I was just scared.

-Did they have masks on?

Yeah, everyone had their hoods up.

There was a couple of girls out there that had their babies.

And the fact that people were walking around with guns and knives

and you're bringing your baby into that environment also.

Do you think they came from outside the area?

-No, I think they're from around here...

-They are?

..that's what's so sickening.

What a delightful lady.

I'm so sorry she went through all this terrible ordeal.

Shaken by Charlene's near escape,

Maurice feels the root of the problem

lies with the apparent greed of MPs.

I think the people who did this... took everything.

Everything they could take, they didn't care.

They knew the police wouldn't touch them, they let them get on with it,

so they just went riot.

And as soon as you lose control of authority,

when people don't know what right is from wrong, yeah.

-INTERVIEWER:

-D'you think that's how it feels now?

I think there's a lose of authority of the police and the Government.

The Government's example is atrocious with their expenses.

People aren't stupid, they know what's gone on

and they are going to retaliate about all that.

I hope that they get what they deserve for what they've done.

-INTERVIEWER:

-So, it's not about trying to understand them and feel sorry for them?

No. No, I don't feel sorry for them at all!

Not in the slightest.

You've got a brain, you know? You use your brain.

You know you're going to hurt people or possibly kill people.

You've got your own mind,

you took it upon yourself to go and do that,

so I don't feel sorry for any of them at all, none of them.

They shouldn't have done it in the first place.

There's no need for it.

So, whatever happens when they go to court...

good, good, that's what I say, good.

Charlene, along with nearly 100 other local families,

have been made homeless by the riots.

Croydon itself was a victim of 430 crimes,

the highest level in the country.

Nationally, almost 15,000 people took part in the riots.

Over 5,000 crimes were committed...

..and five people lost their lives.

PHONE RINGS

All right, sir.

That's really kind of you. Thank you, sir, that's fantastic.

"Good luck, seize the day

"and put the least possible trust into tomorrow."

That's fantastic. People are just amazing, aren't they? Amazing.

We'll put that on the board.

We've had enormous amounts of cards

and well-wishers and things from different people.

And you think when all the horrible stuff goes on

that everyone's horrible,

but overall, people are amazing.

There's an awful lot of nice people in the world,

trouble is, all the focus goes on the horrible people,

instead of the nice people.

Yeah, it's very nice, very touching.

Hundreds of cards from around the world have been pouring in,

but it's those from local children that are touching Maurice most.

The writing is...

..well, lovely.

"I think the riots were pointless and I wish it'd never happened."

Well, it's tearful, really.

I mean, children write from the heart, don't they, really?

And that's what we've got here.

"The rioting was dreadful. People lost their homes and businesses,

"especially on London Road.

"Hopefully Croydon will be back to normal soon."

"I described this night as a hideous night.

"It just gives me nightmares."

"I was shocked, I was very shocked.

"It was the rioters who burnt your shop. Rioters are very shocking."

It comes across in all these letters -

they don't like it and they don't want it.

They don't want riots, they don't want this.

They want England to be like I know it were, when I was a kid.

It was a lovely place to be.

So, we have to put it right, don't we?

There has to be a change of heart

but there has to be the willpower to do it.

-DAVID CAMERON:

-'These riots were not about race,

'the perpetrators and the victims were white, black and Asian.'

In the weeks following the riots,

a national debate has broken out across the airways.

'For months, young people have said, "A riot could take place here." '

'You can't control us. We see the opportunity and take it.

'No-one's got any money,

'so they're trying to make what they can, while they can.'

'I've got no respect for them and they wonder why youth go mad!

'We're going mad cos you're not respecting us.'

-THERESA MAY:

-'The violence, the looting and the thuggery we've seen,

'this is sheer criminality and let's make no bones about it,

'these people will be brought to justice.'

'It was agreed that stop-and-search is necessary

'but there's concern amongst law-abiding young people

'that they're being stopped and not treated with respect...'

'We are fed up. We get searched, we get pulled over for nothing,

'it's our kind of way of rebelling.'

Maurice feels his role

is to keep the plight of his home town in the media spotlight.

He's been championing the recovery of Croydon's businesses,

and what he's hearing is worrying him.

Today, he's meeting a couple

who've suffered an horrendous ordeal at the hands of the rioters.

Maurice Reeves.

-Hi, Binu Mathew.

-Reeves Corner.

-How do you do?

-What's your name?

-My name is Binu Mathew.

Binu Mathew.

-My wife, Lisy George.

-Hello, lovely to meet you.

-I'm Lisy.

-Right.

So what happened to the shop, did they smash the window?

They smashed everything. They broke everything.

They put me in that corner, in the frame of the shop front.

They just pulled me up and...

punch, pull and then kept on punching.

They were hitting his face.

And they got...you know...

the stolen guitars and things from that main side,

they hit me with that on my head, and I was completely bleeding.

And almost everybody, they were in.

-I can say below 20, maybe.

-Yeah, between 15 to 25.

After about ten or 15 minutes,

this gang rushed across the shop.

Binu and his wife finally managed to get out of their shop

and tried to escape in their white van,

but are stopped on the road by rioters.

Within a few seconds, again this crowd surrounded my car.

I didn't want to give the keys to them, so they punched into the car

and then put a hand in my pocket

and then they found somewhere around £900 in my pocket.

Who else was there, in the crowd?

-Boys were there and girls were there.

-Girls were there?

Yes, yes, even I realised that,

a girl punched me on the traffic light, in the van.

I can't believe what I'm hearing.

Then they pulled me and my wife out from the car.

We ran away from that point and we sheltered in the next flat upstairs.

But after that...

You're going to stay here, presumably, and fight it out,

the British spirit, as Mr Cameron said?

Even if my stand is still not clear,

my mind is not made up till now,

whether I want to continue or discontinue,

cos I'm in that position.

-INTERVIEWER:

-What did you think, Maurice?

Well, it's worse than I thought.

They're either stupid...

..or they're intelligent, or they're just...

..bloody brave,

cos I felt uneasy in the shop, after they'd spoken.

I know Croydon's not like this, and that's what worries me.

Croydon is not like this. We're seeing a part of Croydon which is...

..the worst of... Probably every city's got it,

but what he's describing is physical violence.

It's totally unacceptable.

What the hell are we doing, are we allowing?!

Why are Britain and the judiciaries allowing what's happening?

For the first time, Maurice is in real doubt

about whether there is a future for his family business in Croydon.

I think the riots could occur again.

Why should I rebuild my shop?

-It's a big dilemma for you.

-It is a huge dilemma.

I'm really frightened of what's going on.

I don't like what I hear.

I don't like what I see sometimes.

I'm in a dilemma about it and so are my two boys as well.

Look at this! This is the pavement.

Back at Reeves Corner, Maurice is also frustrated

with the time it's taking to repair the damaged area outside the shop.

Look at the hole and they want us to put something up here.

That's going to be the issue.

That's glass.

That's not very nice, is it? Look at the old pub.

You've got our lovely sign over the road.

It's a disgrace.

The council, why don't they make our sign nice?

Look at this gully.

Trevor, look at the gully. You'd trip.

This is the council's fa... You know?

Don't worry about it.

Don't worry about it, it's only a bit of...

Don't worry about it. We've got more things to talk about.

You don't think I worry about it, but I do worry about it.

Don't worry about it.

< I do.

They probably hit it when they smashed the window, I wouldn't worry.

Come inside and just forget it.

'I just think he's getting... It's just too much for the old boy, bless his heart.'

He's going around there looking at the pavement.

Off his head, isn't he?

Not our problem. The pavement is the pavement.

If there's bits wrong, there's bits wrong all over the place.

He's getting himself into a state.

I told him to go in the office and have a cup of tea.

'He's struggling with the whole idea and it's a huge thing to undertake.'

'He's gone round and had a look around Croydon

'and it's affected him big time.'

He's gone and met people who've had some terrible things happen to them,

and it's put him in a whole different perspective

to how he's been before this fire.

Now, he's had a wake up call as to what society is like here.

He's finding it hard to deal with.

David, could you just concentrate on this back?

-No, I've got to get this order off.

-You've been doing that a long while.

No, I haven't.

You've got lights here and they aren't on the wall.

This looks dreadful.

Robert, can we do this back wall, make it look nice, please?

-Get the pictures up.

-You want more pictures on the wall?

Yes, get the lamps going. See this lamp round here standing up?

I went all the lamps on the back wall and round the corner.

Go and find all the lamps and get them put back up.

And get these pictures up.

Maurice's trip to the London Road

is still at the forefront of his mind

and he wants to share his concerns with his sons.

Where I went yesterday... I mean, I was visibly shaken.

This greengrocers place has been attacked.

Pulled over his car and punched in the face.

Has he called the police?

Police might pick them up but what do they do?

Got to catch them in the act, can't get there in time.

They've done the best they can, the police, they can always do better.

They've given out harsh sentences.

Some of them are of draconian.

People deserve to be locked up when they do these terrible things

and I go along with that.

I definitely think the police have been locking up people.

< They should've put these harsh sentences before.

< Why the change?

< Three strikes and you're out.

< Some have been doing it for 10 strikes.

I want zero tolerance. I told Cameron that.

What's the point of letting them out to re-offend?

You've either got to help them more, try and get them a job,

try and get them a roof over their head

and try and do something or lock them up for a long time.

If you lock them up for a long time, it costs you a fortune.

If you can get them back into communities so they're paying tax,

working and being decent people, that's better all round.

They've been trying to rehabilitate these people for years and years.

Nobody does it.

We've still got the problem here and we've got it worse.

We've got the riots and 144 years and it's banged down.

There's Mr Reeves.

He founded our business and I often think of him

because it's been burnt down now by these...scummy people.

I don't like it and I want it put right.

It's three months after the riot.

The restoration work on the surviving shop is nearly complete,

and public interest in the fate of Reeves is still strong.

That was a lovely letter that somebody had sent in to the...

our local paper.

And this is a newspaper article that somebody sent us from Canada.

And, erm, more or less every day there is always a note

or an e-mail.

-Make yourself at home.

-Thank you very much.

Perhaps we can persuade you to buy something. LAUGHTER

Maurice's heightened media profile has caught the attention of two

local community leaders, Tony Harrison and Pat Reid.

They work with young people who've been in trouble with the law

or gang violence and in the wake of the riots,

are trying to build links between Croydon youth and employers.

What I'd like you to do is see if you could come

and meet some young people.

Yes.

Have a chat, see how they feel.

Because what we're looking to do is to get the business community,

the older generation, talking to the younger people.

I think for too long there has been an issue of an us-and-them scenario.

If I can do anything to help, I will do.

Because I've seen so much of it now.

I'm trying to show what can be done with a lick of paint and...

..well, an enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm for life, if you like.

A lot of young people have never met someone who has been

socially successful in their life.

Some people from different cultures have never sat down and had

an intelligent conversation with an older white man or older black man.

-It's just never happened.

-No.

So for you to leave here and to come with us to where these people exist,

into their environment, OK? Is an incredible first-time opportunity.

I'm quite wiling to go. As I have explained, I'm not going to

change my mind, I will do it.

I say what I mean, you won't get me changing my mind.

It's two days later and the imminent meeting with the young people

is starting to concern Maurice.

I don't know whether, you know, reform school,

or whether they've been in prison or...

I really don't know what I'm meeting, that's the trouble.

I don't know who they are or what they are or what they've done,

-if anything.

-Most people, at heart, are nice. There's only a few rotten ones.

-You'll probably find they're nice.

-But there are rotten ones,

I don't want to meet them. Anyway, I'm having a few nightmares about it.

Yesterday I punched Ann in the face nearly when I was asleep.

I was dreaming, I was trying to fight!

I'm going through it even though I haven't even seen them yet.

-Just keep an open mind.

-I will, I will. I will keep an open mind.

But I know what to expect.

You might find they're very positive, wait and see.

So, um, I'm not quite sure what I'm doing. Um...

I shall ad lib it and see what happens. Do my best.

The meeting is taking place at a local community organisation.

Some of the group Maurice is meeting have been in trouble

with the police in the past, others have not,

but all feel strongly about the riots.

Hello. Well, lovely to meet you.

You too.

I don't expect you know me very well but I was the man who had the fire.

And the shop was burnt down. Did you see it on television?

-Yeah.

-You've all seen it.

Erm, you tell me why all of a sudden was it burnt down?

I don't think anybody specifically targeted your shop.

I think it was a moment of madness.

Maybe somebody was running past and thought, "Another shop."

I think to a degree people felt that they didn't have anything to lose.

If every day you're walking down the street and being stopped and searched just for being there.

People are going to have rage. So at that specific moment in time,

they thought, "You know what? I'm going to do this

"because I think the police need to understand

"that you can't treat certain people this way."

There's got to be a better way than burning shops down

and being like this.

All this does is alienate everybody.

I don't think it's wrong for police to stop and search people

because at the end of the day they have to do their job, but just don't...

Don't abuse your power. Stop one person like 10 times a day.

That's a bit too much.

What happened to me, right, when I was young, I was in a gang.

My history is different to you.

I've been stabbed 20 times, I've been shot once.

So I've been through the things like proper bad so,

I made up my mind, I said, "It's not going to take me nowhere."

So I stopped being in a gang about...when I was 16. I'm 20 now.

And from a 20-year-old,

for the police to come down to your house and kick down your door

because when you was 15 and 16 the things you used to do,

that is not right.

But I don't like what is happening in society.

And you don't like it. We are both the same. We both don't like it.

I don't know how to change it.

All the government's done, all the government's done,

is the 1,500 or 2,000 people they put in prison,

they've now created 2,000 criminals that's going to come out.

When they come out, 100% can't get jobs.

-But you've got to answer for your actions.

-I understand that.

-I understand that.

-But they could consider the punishment they give.

So when this lovely man here

is in a gang you don't think he should go to prison?

He doesn't have to go to prison if he's not a murderer,

-if he's not a killer, if he's not a rapist.

-Is there any punishment?

Of course, there's community... community service you can do.

And trust me, doing community service is worse than going

to prison because you have to wake up at certain times

and if you miss that,

they add more hours on or you're going to prison.

I'm sorry it's the fire that brought us all together.

-But wonderful to meet you.

-You too.

-And you, look after yourself.

The meeting having gone well, Tony is keen to see if Maurice

would like to take part in an award ceremony.

The Black Youth Awards on Saturday evening is going to be

there celebrating exactly the things we want to see in our young people.

If you came, and if you wanted to, you wouldn't have to stay long.

Just a few moments and as a Statesman of Croydon

to actually present the Sports Award to the young person.

Give me your number, if I can make it, I will ring you.

After the discussion there's a chance for Maurice to meet up with

an 18-year-old who's doing community service for looting during the riots.

So I hear you got into a bit of trouble with the riots?

Yes. Yep.

-Just tell me a little bit about it because I don't know nothing.

-Well...

-With regard to that.

-..I didn't really get involved with the riots.

I wasn't like doing everything what everyone was doing.

-Not kicking the windows in?

-No. No.

-I heard a shop getting smashed into so I...

-What shop was that?

It's just a corner shop. They sell fags.

-Cigarettes and things like that?

-Yes.

There was no police about so a young youth like me,

you're going to see a shop broken into,

I think you're not going to really think twice about entering it.

You didn't think twice?

-No.

-That's your failure there.

If you was to see £100 on the floor.

-You're not going to leave it there, are you?

-No.

I quite agree with you there. But that's slightly different, isn't it?

Because that doesn't belong to anybody.

You never find out who it is.

But if you go into a shop and actually take something,

you know the owner's going to suffer.

I...I'm sorry for the people whose shops got broken into.

When you're in a gang and all that...

Your adrenaline then just kicks over you.

-You're seeing someone else do it.

-Yes.

-You're seeing them do it.

They're walking down the street with a flat screen TV in their hand.

You see a shop window broken into you're going to enter in the shop.

If I was 17 or 16, in the old days,

and somebody was smashing all the windows down.

I might think, "Well, that's a normal type of thing," and have a go myself.

I can't...I don't know. But I...I don't think so.

-I think I would have stood away.

-I really do wish I did now.

That is right and wrong, however much the temptation is.

But I can understand the other side.

I cannot understand them burning my shop down.

They don't get anything out of it. That's just wanton destruction.

'These people got into trouble very, very early in their lives.

'So you have to have somebody like Tony to pull them out of it

'and try to adjust them.

'I don't know their background.

'They might not have had any parents or single parents

'who went out and boozed. I don't know.

'But if that's the case, they were left to their own devices

'and bang, their into criminality.'

'They have changed my views entirely,

'about the youth of Croydon.'

It's like them and us if you like.

But I've come...

I don't know what I've come from, which side I'm on now.

But I would certainly like to change it, yeah.

That's probably why I'm going to go along tomorrow to present these awards.

Maurice has been invited by Tony to present a sports prize

at the Black Youth Achievement Awards,

this year held in Croydon.

-Good to see you.

-And you. My wife, Ann.

-Ann.

This is this wonderful man Tony I've been talking about.

Yes, I've heard all about you.

-Hope we haven't taken too much of his time.

-No, no.

Where's Pat? Is he here?

Tony mentors young people from all walks of life,

many of them high achievers.

We're here to celebrate great things that young people

in our community have done.

We're here to celebrate you. OK, the winner is...

..Kyla Frye.

APPLAUSE

Kane Solomon Thomas!

APPLAUSE

Here to present the award for sports, please give a hand

for Maurice Reeves of Reeves Corner.

APPLAUSE

What a gathering! My goodness!

The nominees are Liam Curtis,

Makissa Gilkes,

Jardel Morris

and Adesimi Obe-Adewole

APPLAUSE

Now you'll want to know the winner, don't you?

Makissa Jilkes.

CHEERING

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

-Wonderful. What a lovely daughter.

-Oh, thank you, thank you.

-What was your sport?

-Netball.

-Netball? Wonderful.

She's a lovely lady, isn't she?

Really good, Maurice. That was fantastic.

You did really well. Excellent.

-Lovely people, aren't they?

-Yeah.

-A lovely lady as well.

-Yes.

I can't tell you how much I admire you and Pat. Tremendous achievement.

'The thing is, Maurice, why I wanted you to see this'

is because this is the real picture of our youth.

I just need more people to understand that whilst, yes,

we do have the sectors that get it wrong,

-we have more getting it right.

-Yeah.

'If the fire hadn't come along and the riots hadn't come,

'I wouldn't be doing this journey at all.'

And, um...

It's been fascinating, frightening,

surprising and interesting.

Do you see yourself, in a years' time,

laying the foundation for a new shop on the burnt-down site?

The insurance company have said, "Look, if you don't want to go over there,

"you can go anywhere else you like."

We have to consider it, but this is Reeves Corner.

I don't want to go anywhere else. This is my patch.

We've got a third of an acre here. Crikey, that's not a bad shop.

And, um, we're always here.

We've been here since 1867 and we'll be here for the rest of time.

We'll always be here.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail: [email protected]