Reggie Yates likes to make journalists play a game. He asks them to name five black faces on UK television who aren’t newsreader Trevor McDonald and aren’t in a soap. “You can’t, because there are only two or three of us,” he says.

The TV presenter-turned-documentary maker, 33, was initially reluctant to accept being seen as a role model but upon evaluating his industry he decided that his only option was to embrace it.

“I’m very aware of my heritage, that I’m a young black man and that there are no other young black men like me on the telly,” he says, abruptly switching from affable TV-ready patter to earnest straight talk.

“I’m not under any impression that I’m f****** Gandhi or anything. I have a long way to go but the minute you can help one person, that programme has value. So I have no choice but to do more of that.”

He’s here to talk about Yates’s latest project, a BBC Three film, Reggie Yates: Life and Death in Chicago, about gun violence in the city. In it he takes a frank look at black-on-black shootings and community relations with the police.

There are moments where Yates cannot continue talking on camera and asks for a few minutes to himself. For a man who we have watched confront neo-Nazis in Russia, immerse himself in the daily life of a Texan jail and, perhaps most terrifyingly of all, present live weekend children’s TV, it is disconcerting to see him thrown off his game. He admits: “Those moments are real and it’s important that they’re in the film; good, bad and ugly needs to be included.”

Yates grew up on a council estate in Holloway and went to Central Foundation School in Old Street, which he describes as a “mixed bag of wealth and background”. He has been on screen since he was eight, when he was in the Channel 4 comedy Desmond’s, and to millennials he is a familiar face and voice. They have grown up as his career graduated from venerable children’s TV institutions such as the Disney Club and CITV to voicing the cartoon Rastamouse and hosting Top of the Pops and the Radio 1 Chart Show with Fearne Cotton.

Since he moved into documentaries, his Extreme Russia series that aired last year on BBC Three has picked him up a Best Presenter award from the Royal Television Society, among other accolades. Yates acknowledges that the channel targets what he calls “the YooF, with a capital F”, but he doesn’t like to be characterised as a youth documentary maker.

Best TV dramas 2016 29 show all Best TV dramas 2016 1/29 The Missing The addictive and twisty second series of the BBC's crime anthology series BBC/New Pictures/Robert Viglasky 2/29 Dark Angel Joanne Froggatt stared as Victorian mass murderer Mary Ann Cotton in this ITV drama ITV 3/29 Close to the Enemy Stephen Poliakoff's post-war drama thriller BBC/Little Island Pictures 4/29 Ordinary Lies The BBC anthology drama returns with more twisted tales BBC/Red Productions/Adrian Rogers 5/29 The Night Of Riz Ahmed stars in HBO's critically acclaimed crime mini-series HBO 6/29 Cold Feet The classic ITV comedy-drama returns - and it's just as good as it ever was ITV 7/29 Victoria ITV have given Poldark some stiff competition with this period drama about a young Queen Victoria ITV 8/29 Poldark The BBC's hit drama returns with more brooding, and less naked scything BBC/Robert Viglasky 9/29 One of Us The BBC kept everyone guessing with this claustrophobic four-part whodunit 10/29 Ripper Street The fan-favourite Victorian police drama returned for Series 4 BBC/Tiger Aspect 2016/Bernard Walsh 11/29 The Secret Agent Toby Jones led the cast in the BBC's Joseph Conrad adaptation BBC/World Productions/Mark Mainz/Matt Burlem 12/29 The Living and the Dead The BBC's gothic romance debuted in full on iPlayer BBC 13/29 Preacher AMC's adaptation of Garth Ennis' cult comic book is available week-by-week on Amazon Prime Amazon / AMC 14/29 Versailles A raunchy royal romp around the court of King Louis XIV, spicing up Wednesdays on BBC Two Canal +/ BBC 15/29 Locked Up The Spanish prison drama came to the UK thanks to Channel 4's Walter Presents series Channel 4 / Global Series 16/29 Peaky Blinders The Birmingham-set gangster thriller was more popular than ever in its third series BBC/Caryn Mandabach Productions Ltd/Tiger Aspect/Robert Viglasky 17/29 The A Word The BBC gave us a nuanced and emotional take on autism BBC/Fifty Fathoms 18/29 Marcella Anna Friel stars in ITV's British take on the Scandi-noir thriller ITV 19/29 Grantchester James Norton is back as the crime-solving vicar ITV / Lovely Day 20/29 Stag The comedy-thriller from the team behind The Wrong Mans is both hilarious and chilling BBC/Des Willie/Hal Shinnie/Matt Burlem 21/29 Vinyl Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger present a glossy drama about the Seventies music industry HBO 22/29 American Crime Story: The People vs OJ Simpson Cuba Gooding Jr leads an all-star cast in a dramatic re-telling of the 'trial of century' BBC/Fox 23/29 Happy Valley Sarah Lancashire returned as Sgt Catherine Cawood for a second series of the gritty crime thriller BBC/Red Productions/Ben Blackall 24/29 The X Files Mulder and Scully return for a brand new set of mysteries 25/29 War and Peace The BBC's epic adaptation of the Russian literary classic BBC/Mitch Jenkins 26/29 Call the Midwife The BBC period drama moved into the Sixties for Series 5 BBC/Neal Street Productions/Sophie Mutevelian 27/29 Dickensian Charles Dickens' most famous characters collide in this historical soap BBC 28/29 Jericho ITV's British western set in the wilds of Yorkshire 29/29 Silent Witness The hugely popular detective drama returns for a 19th series 1/29 The Missing The addictive and twisty second series of the BBC's crime anthology series BBC/New Pictures/Robert Viglasky 2/29 Dark Angel Joanne Froggatt stared as Victorian mass murderer Mary Ann Cotton in this ITV drama ITV 3/29 Close to the Enemy Stephen Poliakoff's post-war drama thriller BBC/Little Island Pictures 4/29 Ordinary Lies The BBC anthology drama returns with more twisted tales BBC/Red Productions/Adrian Rogers 5/29 The Night Of Riz Ahmed stars in HBO's critically acclaimed crime mini-series HBO 6/29 Cold Feet The classic ITV comedy-drama returns - and it's just as good as it ever was ITV 7/29 Victoria ITV have given Poldark some stiff competition with this period drama about a young Queen Victoria ITV 8/29 Poldark The BBC's hit drama returns with more brooding, and less naked scything BBC/Robert Viglasky 9/29 One of Us The BBC kept everyone guessing with this claustrophobic four-part whodunit 10/29 Ripper Street The fan-favourite Victorian police drama returned for Series 4 BBC/Tiger Aspect 2016/Bernard Walsh 11/29 The Secret Agent Toby Jones led the cast in the BBC's Joseph Conrad adaptation BBC/World Productions/Mark Mainz/Matt Burlem 12/29 The Living and the Dead The BBC's gothic romance debuted in full on iPlayer BBC 13/29 Preacher AMC's adaptation of Garth Ennis' cult comic book is available week-by-week on Amazon Prime Amazon / AMC 14/29 Versailles A raunchy royal romp around the court of King Louis XIV, spicing up Wednesdays on BBC Two Canal +/ BBC 15/29 Locked Up The Spanish prison drama came to the UK thanks to Channel 4's Walter Presents series Channel 4 / Global Series 16/29 Peaky Blinders The Birmingham-set gangster thriller was more popular than ever in its third series BBC/Caryn Mandabach Productions Ltd/Tiger Aspect/Robert Viglasky 17/29 The A Word The BBC gave us a nuanced and emotional take on autism BBC/Fifty Fathoms 18/29 Marcella Anna Friel stars in ITV's British take on the Scandi-noir thriller ITV 19/29 Grantchester James Norton is back as the crime-solving vicar ITV / Lovely Day 20/29 Stag The comedy-thriller from the team behind The Wrong Mans is both hilarious and chilling BBC/Des Willie/Hal Shinnie/Matt Burlem 21/29 Vinyl Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger present a glossy drama about the Seventies music industry HBO 22/29 American Crime Story: The People vs OJ Simpson Cuba Gooding Jr leads an all-star cast in a dramatic re-telling of the 'trial of century' BBC/Fox 23/29 Happy Valley Sarah Lancashire returned as Sgt Catherine Cawood for a second series of the gritty crime thriller BBC/Red Productions/Ben Blackall 24/29 The X Files Mulder and Scully return for a brand new set of mysteries 25/29 War and Peace The BBC's epic adaptation of the Russian literary classic BBC/Mitch Jenkins 26/29 Call the Midwife The BBC period drama moved into the Sixties for Series 5 BBC/Neal Street Productions/Sophie Mutevelian 27/29 Dickensian Charles Dickens' most famous characters collide in this historical soap BBC 28/29 Jericho ITV's British western set in the wilds of Yorkshire 29/29 Silent Witness The hugely popular detective drama returns for a 19th series

“The Russia programme resonated not because it was made for young people by a young person but because it was good,” he says. “I feel I can say that without sounding like a bighead. You’re conscious that it’s for BBC Three but that doesn’t mean you have to wear a pair of big trainers and act like an idiot. The films are accessible to everyone.”

In the Chicago film Yates mentions his experiences with the police as a young black man in London.

He is clearly troubled by the limits of an hour-long film touching on such big issues. “It’s a tough one because a film will always be edited ... what I did say is that I’ve had a lot of bad experiences with the police but I’ve also had some good ones.”

Those experiences relate to driving a series of increasingly flashy cars around the city (“I was a kid — I put big spoilers on a BMW, all this crap, big soundsystem”) and getting “the hard stop” when police would pull over suddenly in front of him. Once he nearly threw up when he gagged on a breathalyser “rammed” down his throat. Now he still notices police cars behind him running his plates and pulling alongside to check it’s him — “it happens to me every day. It happened on my way here”.

I’m not under any illusions that racism doesn’t exist because it f****** does Reggie Yates

But despite this, Yates is earnest in his praise of the diverse capital: “I breathe a sigh of relief when I come back to London because I’ve been spoilt being raised in a city like this. But I’m not under any illusions that racism doesn’t exist because it f****** does. The black experience isn’t one that you can bottle. And it’s tough.”

His time filming in Chicago inevitably led him to make comparisons to his home city. One section sees him tag along with a journalist who follows police radio transmissions to sites of potential gun incidents. Although the ride-a-long is tense, it is the conversation afterwards which is most compelling, and Yates agrees.

“We spoke about how [in Chicago] street corners aren’t street corners anymore. It’s like a treasure map of murders and the map is muddied with pain and crime. I can’t imagine feeling that way about London. I was born and raised here and to see some of my favourite streets become flashpoints for horrific things, I can’t imagine anything worse.”

Yates sees himself as “the eyes and ears of the audience” rather than a journalist or presenter. “I feel like I speak for them. I go into a situation cold and I react in the way the man on the couch will.”

His idol is Louis Theroux, admitting that he dropped his phone when he realised that the film-maker had followed him on Twitter. Recently they met and Yates spent “25 minutes just thanking him”. He gets out his phone to show me a T-shirt that his friends have ordered for him with a picture of Theroux on it — “I’m gonna be sporting that on my Christmas holiday”.

His work schedule is relentless: he made two documentaries in Australia this summer before flying straight to Rio for a stint interviewing Olympic athletes and the day after our interview he’s off to LA.

He also drops in mentions of scripts he’s writing, directing projects, a mentorship scheme and a new house he’s renovating in south-east London.

One subject he’s “burning” to explore is identity and the mixed-race experience in the UK — his background is Ghanaian but his great-grandfather was white.

Yates is clear that his role is to coax stories out of other people, to listen and react as an audience might, but the closer his subject matter gets to home, the more apparent it is that he has plenty to say himself.

“There are more and more children who appear to be racially ambiguous,” he tells me. “A friend has this game called School Gate Roulette where whenever she brings someone new to the gates with her, she says ‘guess what parent goes with what child’ — it’s impossible to know now. That is something I’d really love to explore and unpack.”

He acknowledges that the topic is especially relevant to today’s teenagers. Yates might not be chasing that youth audience but if he continues to tackle subjects which resonate so forcefully with them, they’ll keep watching.

Reggie Yates: Life and Death in Chicago will be on BBC iPlayer from October 4.

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