Gangs of Britain with Gary & Martin Kemp

Spandau Ballet’s Gary and Martin Kemp are teaming up to present Gangs of Britain, a brand new series that follows the brothers as they visit different regions in Britain to explore gang culture both past and present, exclusively on Crime & Investigation Network®. In each episode, Gary and Martin will visit a specific UK region where they investigate the stories of one latter-day and one contemporary gang. Through interviews, archive and dramatic re-construction, they will discover that blood line, criminal activity, clothing, religion, nationality, choice of weapon and prison were just as important to gangs in Victorian and Edwardian Britain as they are today. The brothers famously portrayed the Krays in the eponymous 1990 film but Gangs of Britain will be their first piece of factual television as a duo. In each programme, they interweave the stories of a modern and a historical gang from a major UK city. The series kicks off in Glasgow before visiting Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Sheffield. Gary tackles stories from the past, retelling extraordinary accounts of murder, vice, thievery and extortion from the criminal gangs that ran Britain from the 19th to mid-20th Centuries. From the long fringe, silk neckerchief, peaked hat and wooden clogs of Manchester’s teenage Scuttlers to the Teddy Boy “Edwardian” look of London’s Elephant Boys gang. The series visits the infamous landmarks and interviews historians and experts to uncover and piece together evidence and archives that build up a unique and unfamiliar map of Gangland Britain. Martin will immerse himself in more contemporary gangs that still have living members and victims able to recount what happened in recent years. He will meet the police, experts, members and ex-members of some of the county’s most notorious gangs. From the Burger Bar Boys to the Kings of the Old Kent Road, Gangs of Britain will build up a fascinating picture of the dark underbelly of the United Kingdom.