This Is Tottenham, TV review: David Lammy has humility, drive and patience - what a pity that he has no power

The Labour MP deals with around 6,000 problems raised by his constituents each year. In a rare move, the former barrister tonight allowed the cameras in on some of them in the BBC documentary

Dedicated: the Labour MP David Lammy often found it difficult to address constituents’ concerns (Steffan Hill/BBC)

In the 30 years since the Broadwater Farm riot, Tottenham in north London, has had more than its fair share of bad press. From the tragedies of Baby P and Victoria Climbié to the 2011 shooting of Mark Duggan, this is an area all too often at the heart of the headlines.

It is also home to 115,000 people speaking 200 different languages and local MP David Lammy deals with around 6,000 problems raised by his constituents each year. In a rare move, the former barrister tonight allowed the cameras in on some of them in the BBC documentary This Is Tottenham.

Labour MP Lammy, who has represented Tottenham for 15 years, grew up in the area and described his career as "a calling". After one hour of listening to harrowing tale after harrowing tale, it is clear that he's a stronger man than most. But in spite of all the skills he demonstrated – humility, drive and patience among them (although the man who tried to show him 100 photos of illegally parked cars tested that) – what this documentary mostly demonstrated was how little real power MPs have.

Lammy was dealing with problems with housing (a family of five living in one bedroom); the police (a mother who didn't believe her son's disappearance was being taken seriously); the NHS (one man waited 14 days for a GP appointment); education (students were being denied loans because of their residency status) and local business concerns (some were being destroyed to make way for houses) – and he was unable to intervene directly in any of them.

He could raise the issues with the relevant people, he could escalate them to a certain degree – he could even invite people to Westminster to raise them in the Commons – but he couldn't provide a direct solution, no matter how much he wanted to. As he repeatedly said, he doesn't work for the local council and doesn't "run" Tottenham. He doesn't have access to funding and, in the case of one local business owner, he couldn't fight for the man's timber yard to stay open because he had actively campaigned for the new housing development that it was being flattened to make way for.

His heart was most definitely in it, even if he was trying way too hard to be a cheeky, laid-back "man of the people". He was visibly moved by feisty mother, Koli, who was at her wit's end trying to get help for her disabled son, Adam. He desperately needed surgery but couldn't have it until their house had been adapted. She couldn't get her house adapted because there was a dispute with the local authority. Stuck in limbo, "four-foot-nothing" Koli was stuck lugging her son up and down the stairs alone.

Having been met with a brick wall at every turn, her local MP was her last hope. And this was the case for the majority of people visiting Lammy's surgeries – a last-ditch plea having already been wrapped in red tape and fobbed off with every excuse in the book. Sadly, their knight in shiny suit was all too often constrained by the same red tape and excuses.