BBC ANNOUNCES NEW DOCUMENTARY ON THE FINAL 24 HOURS OF DAMILOLA TAYLOR

BBC Factual today announces it has commissioned Optomen Television to produce a documentary for BBC One and iPlayer exploring the final 24 hours of Damilola Taylor’s life — and the lasting impact his death has had on those who knew him and a generation that followed.

Contributors include Damilola’s childhood friend John Boyega, who gives previously unheard testimony about being one of the last people to see him alive, sharing the fear and uncertainty that followed in the aftermath of his death.

Damilola was just 10 years old when he was fatally stabbed on 27th November 2000, in a stairwell in Peckham, South East London, just metres from his home. His killing sent shockwaves through Britain and became a defining moment in the national conversation around the horrors of knife crime.

John is joined by other close friends and family members who reveal the events that led to Damilola’s death and talk for the first time about the impact his tragic murder has had in shaping their lives.

The insiders’ account of Damilola’s final 24 hours and the story of what happened afterwards shed new light on the stark choices that were facing young people in our inner cities at the turn of the millennium, and how there has been a rise in knife-related crime in the twenty-five years since.

Directed by double Grierson Award-winning filmmaker Alex Thomas (Bibaa & Nicole: Murder in the Park), the film retraces Damilola’s final day - charting his movements and examining the environment and pressures shaping the lives of young people around him at that time. 

Jack Bootle, Head of Commissioning, Specialist Factual, said: “The killing of Damilola Taylor shocked the UK and changed the lives of those closest to him forever. This film traces their stories - and honours Damilola’s memory through the voices of those who knew him best.”

Alex Thomas, Director, said: “Damilola’s story has never been told through the experience of the young people who were living it at the time. This film shows what it meant to grow up in an environment shaped by fear, bullying and the need to protect yourself — and how those pressures influenced the choices people made. Twenty-five years on, those experiences still stay with them, and many of those pressures still exist for young people today.”

Damilola Taylor: The Last 24 Hours (working title), for BBC One and iPlayer, is made by Optomen Television, an All3Media company.