Benefits Street series 2: Meet the Kingston Road residents from Little Dot to drug user Maxwell

It's time for another round of the controversial Channel 4 series

Friends and neighbours Sue Griffiths and Julie Young in Benefits Street (Channel 4)

Tonight sees the return of Benefits Street, arguably one of Channel 4’s most controversial documentary series.

Back for a second run and based on Kingston Road in Stockton-On-Tees, the show will introduce viewers to a new group of residents reliant on benefits, who have built a strong community spirit out of the challenges they faced in a time of economic decline.

“They think we’re scroungers, but they don’t ask why we’re not working,” says mother-of-five Sue Griffiths in the series two trailer. “We stick together on this estate, we stick together all of us.”

Street agony aunt Sue is just one of the locals we meet in the first episode, along with mother-of-six Julie, drug user Maxwell, food bank dependent Lee and unemployed grandmother Dorothy ‘Little Dot’ Taylor.

Viewers can expect to see scenes of drug-dealing and drug use in Benefits Street series two, with Maxwell seen openly bagging up cannabis, smoking it and taking pills before appearing in court.

The 35-year-old told cameramen that he took “early retirement” from crime after a string of convictions and now claims benefits because he struggles with memory loss. Subsequent shots show him using his benefits money to top up his tan at a sunbed salon before he is sent back to prison.

Last year’s Benefits Street made a star out of Deirdre ‘White Dee’ Kelly when she took part in a televised political and media debate about poverty and welfare before joining Celebrity Big Brother.

The first series, set in James Turner Street in Birmingham, attracted hundreds of complaints to broadcasting watchdog Ofcom, with many viewers branding it “poverty porn”.

White Dee from the first series of Benefits Street (Channel 4)

Channel 4 was later cleared of breaching any rules and Nick Mirsky, head of documentaries, has not ruled out making a third series.

“There isn’t a third series of Benefits Street in production but what I would say is that the gap between rich and poor and the subject of welfare and benefits is an important subject,” he said. “Channel 4 have to keep looking at that and finding ways of telling stories.”

Benefits Street airs at 9pm on Channel 4 tonight.