Plan B on iLL Manors: 'I'm making the British Godfather' "Ill Manors was born off the back of Michelle," says Drew. It is just like a gangster film, like my kind of British Godfather, which will turn into a three-part thing, I hope. There is a lot of stuff based on my own experience that I had to take out. I didn't want to send people away from the cinema with a total feeling of dread and darkness. Dread and darkness still haunt the movie, even if it is brighter than Drew originally intended. "I have lost quite a few childhood friends to heroin and crack - I even tried getting one of my friends clean for 12 months, only for him to throw it back in my face," he says. My experience with heroin addicts - trying to get a person you love off drugs - isn't a positive one. "I know a girl who had a crack baby, and I know a whole generation of kids from a village in Essex taking their parents" cars and money and driving into London to pick up serious drugs. The parents had moved to get away from it, but their kids still go back. Your kids aren't safe anywhere. In my eyes, the reality is even harder and more painful than what we show in the film, but you don't want to send people home from the cinema feeling like they want to kill themselves. You need to bring some light and some hope to the film, although for me that side of it is the fairy tale, not the reality. People who don't know this environment wouldn't believe what really goes on. The hard-hitting story has proved a true labour of love for Drew, who got his film funded by entering Film London's Microwave programme, which helps aspiring moviemakers. Microwave funded Eran Creevy's 2008 hit Shifty, and the star of that film, Riz Ahmed, takes a leading role in Ill Manors. Otherwise, most of Drew's cast are unknowns. His uncle, for example, has a major part. Drew's profile rose considerably during production when the Strickland Banks album became a critical and commercial success. "Suddenly people higher up the chain started putting in their two cents" worth," he says. "We were at the 11th hour, two days away from shooting, and I was getting emails saying I can't have the word '----" in my film. I'd been encouraged to be a maverick and to break the rules, but then I'm told they don't want me to be a maverick. It was difficult. I just had to say, 'Cool, OK" and then ignore them and do my own thing." His lack of filmmaking experience was not an issue, he says. Drew had good people around him, such as director of photography Gary Shaw, who shot Moon with director Duncan Jones. I'd have understood if people had said, 'Who the ---- is this pop star? What an idiot! But no one condescended to me on set. I didn't know all the technical terms but I know how to tell a story and that's all I needed to know. He also knew how to approach the music. The film is jumping with Drew's self-penned tunes, and an Ill Manors album comes out next month. It will stand as Drew's third release. His acting career, meanwhile, should step up a gear after his starring role in the modern-day adaptation of the Seventies TV police serial The Sweeney, which is out in September. The movie, directed by Nick Love, stars Ray Winstone as Jack Regan and Drew as his buddy George Carter. As an actor I really am at the beginning. I don't even feel as though I can really call myself an actor yet," Drew says. I am someone who can act but I need to prove myself to myself. But I've been so lucky. Working with Ray Winstone was amazing. They say you shouldn't meet your heroes, but Ray was everything you'd want him to be. He represents, with Michael Caine, a role model for me. "Ray took me under his wing and I was like, 'I want this guy to be my dad." " iLL Manors" is out on Wed 6 June. The Sweeney" is out on Sept 12