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KNIFE CRIME: Alex Beresford investigates the issue in a new ITV documentary

ITV WEATHERMAN Alex Beresford investigates the country’s knife crime crisis in a new documentary airing this evening.

Beresford, who was praised after he intervened in a debate about responses to knife crime during an episode of Good Morning Britain, will explore the issue in one-off programme Knife Crime & Me.

The weather presenter was not part of the debating panel on an episode of Good Morning Britain in March but interjected to counter chair of the Police Federation John Apter’s argument that more prisons were required.

“Some of these boys, they don’t fear prison, if you don’t change the environment it won’t change anything and that’s the key thing,” he said. “This has been happening for years.”

“I didn’t expect it to go viral. I didn’t even expect it to have the amount of support that I had off the back of it but people said that it was a welcome voice,” Beresford told Good Morning Britain earlier today.

Ten days after the clip of his contribution to the debate went viral, Beresford’s cousin Nathaniel Armstrong was stabbed to death in London. A man has been charged with Armstrong’s murder but because of the circumstances of his death which prevented his body from being immediately released to the family, his funeral has not yet taken place.

In the documentary, Beresford returns to the scene of Armstrong’s death for the first time since the murder. He also travels across Bristol, London, the West Midlands and Glasgow to speak to those affected by knife crime and working to solve it.

During visits in London and Bristol he is told that police cuts and reductions in the funding given to youth services could be a contributing factor to the rise in stabbings, ITV News reported.

He also meets with young people who fear for their safety following numerous knife crime deaths in their area.

Beresford said his work on the documentary reaffirmed that it takes several things to fix the knife crime epidemic.

“It’s going to take lots of different, you know, sides coming together to work as one, to come together as one. I feel that we can solve it, it is going to take a long period of time. It’s an uphill struggle. I just hope as a nation, we’ve got the energy and the backing to do it,” he said.

Knife Crime & Me airs on ITV at 7.30pm

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