Podcast
Gangster
Hosted by BBC Radio 5 Live · EN
How did a small-time carpenter with a minor and fumbled role in a 1963 violent heist become Britain's most famous fugitive and - for many - an unlikely folk hero?
From gangland tea boy to Brazilian playboy, this series recounts the controversial rollercoaster life of Ronnie Biggs in his own words, through previously unheard recordings.
Actor Daniel Mays, who portrayed the Great Train Robber in a major ITV drama, hosts the podcast, marking the 25th anniversary of Biggs' return to Britain to face justice after 36 years on the run.
32episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
5. The Magic Balloon Gang
2d ago00:29:51Tap to summarizeBuy your ticket for ‘The Ronnie Biggs Experience’. For fifty dollars you will be entitled to Brazilian barbecue, a few beers, and an intimate audience with an international celebrity fugitive. Branded T-Shirts are available upon request.Live music may be provided by the Sex Pistols or, otherwise, a pop band of adorable children. Warning: the risk of a kidnap attempt occurring within the duration of this event is high. Snakes are also a known hazard.This episode has been edited since publication.Credits: Presenter - Daniel Mays Producers - Phoebe McIndoe & Jude Shapiro Executive Producer - Jack Howson Associate Exec - Chris Pickard Mix Engineering - Will Fitzpatrick Commissioning Producer - Sam Proffitt Commissioning Executive - Louise Kattenhorn Commissioning Editor - Richard MaddockContributors include: Michael ‘Breiti’ Breitkopf & Bruce Henry Leitman, musical collaborators of Biggs Ursula Crocker, ex-housemate of Biggs Colin MacKenzie, crime reporter for the Daily Express Professor Ruth Penfold-Mounce, celebrity crime expert Chris Pickard, ghostwriter for Biggs Alex Popovics, son of Biggs’ partner Ulla Sopher John Robb, musician and punk critic Jim Shreim, documentarian and neighbour of BiggsA Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds
Transcribe →4. The Slip-Up
1w ago00:35:03Tap to summarizeWelcome to Rio in 1970. Home to the most beautiful football team the world has ever known. Home to a brutal military dictatorship. And, now, home of the last Great Train Robber at large.The Ronnie Biggs rollercoaster is about to crank up for another wild ride that takes in a Scotland Yard sting, samba, teenage pregnancy, the tabloid scoop of the decade, and an accidental legal loophole that defies the British government.Credits: Presenter - Daniel Mays Producers - Phoebe McIndoe & Jude Shapiro Executive Producer - Jack Howson Associate Exec - Chris Pickard Mix Engineering - Will Fitzpatrick Commissioning Producer - Sam Proffitt Commissioning Executive - Louise Kattenhorn Commissioning Editor - Richard MaddockContributors include: Ursula and Chris Crocker, ex-housemates of Biggs Colin MacKenzie, crime reporter for the Daily Express Chris Pickard, ghostwriter for Biggs Jim Shreim, documentarian and neighbour of Biggs Noel ‘Razor’ Smith, writer and former armed robberA Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds
Transcribe →3. The Land of Milk and Honey
2w ago00:31:37Tap to summarizeWhat price freedom? And why should you never wear crocodile shoes when you’re on the run?!While the rest of the Great Train Robbery gang are serving thirty-year sentences, the runaways are enjoying the delights of mid-sixties Paris and Las Vegas. But the life of an outlaw is not all about cabaret clubs, Frank Sinatra residencies, and sweet freedom … painful plastic surgery and familial misery is part of the package too. Credits: Presenter - Daniel Mays Producers - Phoebe McIndoe & Jude Shapiro Executive Producer - Jack Howson Associate Exec - Chris Pickard Mix Engineering - Will Fitzpatrick Additional Production Support - Ashley Clivery Commissioning Producer - Sam Proffitt Commissioning Executive - Louise Kattenhorn Commissioning Editor - Richard MaddockContributors include: Ian Dowding, nephew of Biggs Doctor Sharonna Pearl, historian and face theorist Nick Reynolds, sculptor and son of the Great Train Robbery gang leader Noel ‘Razor’ Smith, writer and former armed robber Brian Stone, cellmate of BiggsA Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds
Transcribe →2. The Hate Factory
3w ago00:34:08Tap to summarizeThis episode contains reference to self harm.We’re in Wandsworth Prison, where the lights never go out. And where freedom for Ronnie Biggs might only be a chess game or a rope climb away … Meanwhile - outside the jail walls - the British establishment is shaking under the weight of working-class anger, the Profumo affair, the Swinging Sixties, and a media frenzy at the severe sentences handed down to the Great Train Robbers. If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this programme, details of organisations offering information and support can be found at bbc.co.uk/actionlineCredits: Presenter - Daniel Mays Producers - Phoebe McIndoe & Jude Shapiro Executive Producer - Jack Howson Associate Exec - Chris Pickard Mix Engineering - Will Fitzpatrick Additional Production Support - Ashley Clivery Commissioning Producer - Sam Proffitt Commissioning Executive - Louise Kattenhorn Commissioning Editor - Richard Maddock Contributors include: Professor Dick Hobbs, criminologist Noel ‘Razor’ Smith, writer and former armed robber Brian Stone, cellmate of Biggs A Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds
Transcribe →1. The Big One
May 700:30:07Tap to summarizeIn 1963, a small-time South London carpenter joins the biggest robbery in British history for one reason - he knows a retired train driver who is semi-competent. And yet Ronnie Biggs will, for the next fifty years, be far more famous than the man who planned it, the rest of the gang who pulled it off, the train driver who was so brutally attacked, or the Scotland Yard detectives who solved the case. How exactly is a criminal ‘legend’ born? Actor Daniel Mays delves into unheard Ronnie Biggs tapes and takes us back to the rubble of post-war London to find out …Credits: Presenter - Daniel Mays Producers - Phoebe McIndoe & Jude Shapiro Executive Producer - Jack Howson Associate Exec - Chris Pickard Mix Engineering - Will Fitzpatrick Additional Production Support - Ashley Clivery Commissioning Producer - Sam Proffitt Commissioning Executive - Louise Kattenhorn Commissioning Editor - Richard MaddockContributors include: Professor Dick Hobbs, criminologist Nick Reynolds, sculptor and son of the Great Train Robbery gang leader Noel ‘Razor’ Smith, writer and former armed robber Brian Stone, cellmate of BiggsA Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds
Transcribe →Introducing Gangster Presents: The Story of Ronnie Biggs
May 400:02:15Tap to summarizeHow did a small-time carpenter with a minor and fumbled role in a 1963 violent heist become Britain’s most famous fugitive and - for many - an unlikely folk hero? From gangland tea boy to Brazilian playboy, this series recounts the controversial rollercoaster life of Ronnie Biggs in his own words, through previously unheard recordings. Actor Daniel Mays, who portrayed the Great Train Robber in a major ITV drama, hosts the podcast, marking the 25th anniversary of Biggs’ return to Britain to face justice after 36 years on the run.Listen first on BBC Sounds from May 7th, 2026.A Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds
Transcribe →
6. Losing Face
Apr 900:28:26Tap to summarizeIt’s the 1990s and Wo Shing Wo gangsters think they’re untouchable. Georgie Pai is fighting yet another deportation order after being caught in the UK again. He’s granted bail on the condition that he reports weekly to a local police station.Meanwhile, a team of television journalists set up a sting in Manchester, aiming to expose how the Triads operate. The broadcast is devastating, a huge ‘loss of face’, which in the eyes of many in the Chinese community turns Georgie Pai from a feared villain to laughingstock overnight. Georgie Pai ends up fleeing to Cheltenham, leaving the Triad life behind him. But in the gang world, there’s always someone waiting in the wings to become top dog.Presenter: Livvy Haydock Series Producer: Hayley Mortimer Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Producers: Patrick Kiteley & Matt Toulson Fixer in Hong Kong: Michelle Chan Music: Andy Simms and Reliable Source Music Journalism Assistants: Hattie Valentine & Ellie Dover Commissioning Producer: Sam Proffitt Commissioning Executive: Lorraine Okuefuna and Louise Kattenhorn Commissioning Editor: Richard Maddock Editor and Executive Producer: Clare FordhamArchive: The Cook Report: Meet The Triads (Central Television, ITV)
Transcribe →5. Video Wars
Apr 200:30:38Tap to summarizeA video war is raging across Britain’s Chinatowns, fuelled by a booming market for Hong Kong films and soaps, copied and rented out for huge profit. In Manchester, Wo Shing Wo quickly seizes control, establishing a near-monopoly on the lucrative video rental trade.But where money flows, so does violence. In Glasgow, restaurant owner Philip Wong is brutally murdered by contract killers wielding machetes. Police suspect his death came after he refused to cooperate with Wo Shing Wo, who demanded a share of his profitable Chinese video business. Despite investigations, the three men wanted for the murder have never been traced.Presenter: Livvy Haydock Series Producer: Hayley Mortimer Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Producers: Patrick Kiteley & Matt Toulson Fixer in Hong Kong: Michelle Chan Music: Andy Simms and Reliable Source Music Journalism Assistants: Hattie Valentine & Ellie Dover Commissioning producer: Sam Proffitt Commissioning executive: Lorraine Okuefuna and Louise Kattenhorn Commissioning editor: Richard Maddock Editor and Executive Producer: Clare FordhamArchive: The Cook Report: Meet The Triads (Central Television, ITV)
Transcribe →4. The Northern Powerhouse
Mar 2700:30:59Tap to summarizeBy the 1980s, Georgie Pai has been arrested in Glastonbury for overstaying a tourist visa, found guilty of terrorising Chinese communities in Southampton, and deported back to Hong Kong. But borders are no barrier for a man with the right connections. He slips back into Britain and continues to expand his empire.Manchester becomes his nerve centre as police begin building a database of suspected Triad gangsters. But with Wo Shing Wo’s growing power comes a rising tide of violence. One of Georgie Pai’s associates is brutally attacked with machetes, a warning that it is far from an isolated incident. Across the UK, violent clashes between rival Triad factions are becoming alarmingly common, each gang carving up territory in a bloody, escalating turf war.Presenter: Livvy Haydock Series Producer: Hayley Mortimer Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Producers: Patrick Kiteley & Matt Toulson Fixer in Hong Kong: Michelle Chan Music: Andy Simms and Reliable Source Music Journalism Assistants: Hattie Valentine & Ellie Dover Commissioning Producer: Sam Proffitt Commissioning Executive: Lorraine Okuefuna and Louise Kattenhorn Commissioning Editor: Richard Maddock Editor and Executive Producer: Clare Fordham
Transcribe →3. Sleeping Tiger
Mar 2000:26:55Tap to summarizeTwo Hong Kong nationals are arrested in Southampton after guns are found in a vehicle. One of them speaks to police, revealing that a flourishing protection racket is operating right under their noses. He also provides the name of their gang leader – Georgie Pai. Hampshire Constabulary sets up a Triad squad but quickly encounters a wall of silence. The terrified community fears not only for themselves but also for their relatives back in Hong Kong.Four hundred miles away in Glasgow, detectives hear similar reports of businesses being extorted and they hear that name again… Georgie Pai. He’s now on the radar of police across the country and under scrutiny from immigration authorities. But as his criminal empire grows, he forgets to renew his tourist visa. Georgie Pai is deported back to Hong Kong for the first time, but even in exile, he continues pulling the strings.Presenter: Livvy Haydock Series Producer: Hayley Mortimer Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford Producers: Patrick Kiteley & Matt Toulson Fixer in Hong Kong: Michelle Chan Music: Andy Simms and Reliable Source Music Journalism Assistants: Hattie Valentine & Ellie Dover Commissioning Producer: Sam Proffitt Commissioning Executive: Lorraine Okuefuna and Louise Kattenhorn Commissioning Editor: Richard Maddock Editor and Executive Producer: Clare Fordham
Transcribe →