From left: Dymond DJ, Dame Emma Thompson, Hope Gallagher and Prospex CEO Richard ‘Beef’ Frankland

SHE is one of the film world’s best loved stars, a double Oscar winner who has seen and done it all.

But yesterday (Thursday) Dame Emma Thompson swapped glitzy film sets for a youth centre near Caledonian Road to help a teenager record a podcast.

As a patron, the Sense and Sensibility and Love Actually actor is no stranger to the Prospex youth centre where she met Hope Gallagher, 16, who has been using the hub since she was eight years old.

“I think places like this are essential and we need so many more,” said Dame Emma.

“It’s depressing when you’re saying how great a place is and that you need more, but, the fact of the matter is that it’s a no-brainer. It’s one of the greatest gifts you can give on any level to a community, to society at large, to young people, to parents – it’s a break as well for parent – if you’ve got somewhere to go where you’re safe.

“Just think about where we are in London, and think about the levels of violence that young people experience, and think about why that is – well, there’s nowhere to express yourself. There’s nowhere to go and have a discussion about what’s pissing you off, and the aggro that you’ve been experiencing – there’s nowhere to go.”

She added: “What we should be asking ourselves is why this isn’t just a normal thing in our society? We’re a grown-up society, it’s the 21st century.

Dame Emma, right, recording the podcast with Hope Gallagher

“Why aren’t there several great youth hubs in every borough? It’s mad, actually. Because what a beautiful thing, and we’re perfectly rich enough to afford it.”

Dame Emma has been an active campaigner around food insecurity, previously taking a group of young people who did not have enough to eat to Downing Street.

“Access to food and a knowledge of it was one of the first things I noticed about Prospex,” she said.

The centre cooks a meal for every session they run, so kids have at least one hot meal a day. They also teach the kids how to cook and prepare nutritious meals.

Dame Emma added: “I remember coming in and all the kids were chopping up rainbow chard. I wouldn’t have known what rainbow chard was until I was well into my 40s. It’s fantastic.

“Food insecurity for children in this country is worse than we think it is. It is disgraceful. It’s an absolute outrage. There are solutions.

“Over the years I’ve become more and more incandescent with rage. It’s really bad, and it’s much worse than we think because it’s not spoken about much.

“People say it’s feckless families, and you’re thinking ‘for crying out loud!’”

Ms Gallagher said that places like Prospex are particularly useful for young women.

“We have a girls group here, and I think that’s really important,” she said. “As a young woman, you’re not really shown what could happen to you in life – like, if you’re walking in the dark you might get attacked. Nobody tells you that. So, coming here you learn what could happen to you if you’re alone at night.

Dame Emma reading the Tribune

“You learn about menstrual cycles, and different changes in your body, they teach you all about that. I think that’s really good as loads of young women don’t think their bodies are weird, or that the changes going on are weird.”

Dymond DJ, the recording studio manager at Prospex, said: “These places give all of us a sense of community, even a sense of family. Speaking for myself, we come in, we all sit down, we eat dinner together. A lot of people don’t have that in their own families, myself included.

“When I was 15, all I heard about was youth clubs closing. There was nowhere for us to go. So, you’d just be hanging around the streets, get moved on, end up in one person’s house or something. I find this place magical.”

Dame Emma said the way we talk about young people and the function of youth clubs needs to change.

“That phrase, ‘we should keep young people off the streets.’ I don’t think we should use that phrase any more,” she said.

“I think we need to keep young people engaged, and valued. I don’t want young people off the street, I want to see them on the street and having a good time. So, what, we’ve just got to keep young people off the streets because they’ve got to be out of the way?

“Actually, it’s about creating beautiful, safe, fun spaces for young people to enjoy themselves in so they’re happy and having a decent time, and not feeling scared or threatened, and not feeling ‘Oh God, I have to protect myself from bloody everything.’ It’s spaces like these that create that.”