ROSS KEMP has described his recent experience filming in Belfast as an “eye opener” and said that many people in the UK have “no idea how dangerous a place it was”.
The actor turned documentary-filmmaker is back in the city today for a preview screening of the Belfast episode of his Extreme World series, which airs tonight on Sky 1 at 9pm.
He said of the violence that gripped Belfast for decades: “There is a generation of people across the UK that has no idea how dangerous a place it was.
"I never really grasped the intensity of it. The surreal thing is that this is a suburban street."
The former Eastenders actor visited Northern Ireland during the Twelfth of July trouble for the third episode of the series.
The documentary was filmed last summer almost 15 years after a political peace settlement was signed.
Kemp braved the sectarian riots in Northern Ireland which left dozens of police officers injured, sheltering behind police vehicles as petrol bombs were thrown, and said that he was surprised by the intensity of the violence.
Explaining his decision for choosing Belfast as a location for the series, he said: “You're not aware of a lot of what goes on there over in the UK, and a lot of young people have no idea about the Troubles and the issues that existed in Northern Ireland.
“For me it was very much about looking at where we are now, 15 years on from the Good Friday Agreement.”
He added: “I hope that we allowed people with extreme views from both sides of the community to have their say and we spoke to people who have genuine grievances, but I really wanted it to be non-judgemental, completely unbiased.”
As part of Kemp's investigation into the tensions and divisions regarding parading in Northern Ireland, he interviewed senior police officers, including PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott, and both bandsmen participating in loyalist parades and nationalist residents holding protests.
The series features some of the world's most dangerous people and places, and has so far aired episodes on sex traffickers in India and Papua New Guinea, where he was held at gunpoint by guerillas.
