Ross Kemp’s new documentary will look at if UK police are prepared for threat (Picture; ITV)

Ross Kemp has been all around the world looking at gang culture, discovering the effects of war in Afghanistan and searching for pirates.

But his new two-part documentary, filmed in Birmingham, may have been the biggest shock of all.

‘I am making a documentary about our armed response units and counter terrorist units – armed police across the UK – [and asking] do we have enough to meet the threat that is now posed to us?,’ revealed Ross.

‘Not only by terrorists but also by the increase in the use of hand guns by drugs gangs.’


And then he admitted that he has to ‘wear the same body armour that I wore in Syria on the streets of Birmingham’.

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The Office Of National Statistics confirmed in 2017 that the West Midlands had ‘the highest rate of non-air firearm offences per 1100,000 population’ across the country; handguns have remained the most common non-air firearm in the UK since 2009.



Ross has been working with the West Midlands police force on the documentary as well as the British Transport Police, Northumberland police and South Yorkshire police.

Ross has gone around the world

But he tells Metro.co.uk that it’s not all doom and gloom across the country, as Ross has also been working closely with Go Outdoors, the UK’s biggest outdoors store that encourages people to get out and experience everything the UK has to offer.

‘The older I get it gets more important [to get out],’ said Ross.

‘I don’t play sport every weekend, don’t go running around a rugby field getting beat up, I have a young family and a beautiful golden retriever called Bruno so I go for walks along the beach.’

‘What’s good is I’ve been buying sleeping bags, tents, rucksacks, day packs, utensils for being on the ground in Afghan, Syria, Iraq, recently Libya – even in the jungle and the Amazon – but all the stuff I need I don’t go to expensive shops, I go to Go Outdoors because it’s the same kit at a discounted price and the advice you get is the same you’d get from a world class mountaineer.

And, he says, ‘the people are so nice, the people wandering around – Go Outdoors is a true insight into the good side of Britain.’

Ross visited Ukraine during the protests

Since welcoming twins in October, he is now a father of four and he admits that getting out for a day is a lot harder but for families it’s just ‘picking the right moments’.

‘We put them in slings – it’s hard but you just pick the right moments. I live in the Thames Valley and there’s lots of places to walk, or we go day camping,’ he said.

After leaving EastEnders in 1999 (albeit with several return appearances since), Ross has really focused on investigative journalism, and he admits that it’s been a joy to ‘get to travel the world and meet incredibly interesting people’.

‘Undoubtedly we concentrate on the bad but overwhelming the world is a good place to be even though we’re trying to destroy it as fast as we can,’ he said.

‘The human species are far better than we often make them out to be in dramas – whether you’re Muslim or Christian or Hindu, we all want the same things, we want a better life for our kids, we want to live in peace and have security.’



Ross Kemp will open the GO Outdoors store in Reading at 9am on Saturday 17 March.

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