Idris Elba – star of US drama The Wire as well as the BBC’s crime series Luther - met local children at London Fields, where he used to play football as a child.

It was part of the Barclays ‘My Space for Sport’ campaign, which is taking sports stars, TV personalities, actors, and musicians back to where they started playing sport.

The idea is to encourage communities to use local more than 200 purpose-built sites around the country, which investment from Barclays bank has helped improve.

After reminiscing about his “20 yard screamers” and “curling them in like Brady,” Elba then visited the Arsenal FC Barclays Spaces for Sports site at Rosemary Gardens, near the De Beauvoir Estate, during the visit on December 11.

“If I lived locally and knew this site was linked to Arsenal Football Club I would definitely use it,” he said.

“It’s great, it’s clean and safe and you can actually get a great game here. I love this facility.”