ASHLEY Walters really wishes people would stop asking him about jail. “It’s a distant memory,” says the 42-year-old actor and former So Solid Crew member. “I didn’t want to be there. But it was a moment in time. It happened.”
These days, the Peckham-born star has more current projects to discuss. He’s just released his first music in years with Test the Walters 2. His Victorian boxing drama A Thousand Blows dropped last month on Disney+. He’s wrapped shooting on Animol, his directorial debut, and his memoir Always Winning hits shelves in May.
Not bad for someone who left school at 14. “Who am I to be sitting here moaning?” Walters grins. “I get paid to dress up in clothes and run around pretending to be someone else all day. You can’t get a better job than that.”
The Top Boy star, now a father of eight and grandfather living in Kent, has come a long way since 2002, when armed police arrested him for waving a firearm at a traffic warden. The nine-month stint in a young offenders’ institute that followed could have ended his career. Instead, it led to his breakout role in Bullet Boy.
“I have no regrets,” he says. “I’m a better man for it.”
Walters credits his recent productivity to giving up alcohol and moving to Herne Bay with wife Danielle. “Being productive, turning up on time—that’s the visible stuff,” he says. “But the real changes are my kids’ progress in school, and my wife not having to worry about me. Those pressures are relieved.”
His new Netflix series Adolescence sees him playing DI Luke Bascombe, investigating a teenage murder suspect. “What really matters is why this man cares—because he’s a dad,” Walters explains. “That’s why it hits people hard. Everyone will see themselves in it.”
Walters’ own parenting is informed by his upbringing. Raised by his mum, aunt, and gran after his dad left, he says: “I always had space to cry. My kids have seen me vulnerable too. That’s how it should be.”
Top Boy changed everything. “It became part of our culture,” he says. “I’ve been lucky—So Solid, Top Boy—to be part of these pivotal moments.”
Now, he’s making music again, but differently. “A wise mate told me it should just be fun,” he says. “Who cares about charts now? I’m just seeing what sticks.”
Writing his memoir was tough. “Hours of my brother-in-law asking stuff I didn’t want to talk about,” he admits. But he needed to tell his story properly. The first copy went to his eldest daughter “so she’d understand how I think.”
The book’s title says it all. “Failure’s not a loss if you learn,” Walters says. “That’s why I called it Always Winning. I’m just happy to be here.”
In Adolescence, Walters delivers another powerful performance as a detective caught in a gripping teen murder case. The Netflix series shows he’s still at the top of his game—finding new depth in stories about second chances. Not bad for someone who was written off twenty years ago.
