Gangster

Welcome 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 Maddock
Contributors 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 robber
A Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds

What 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 Maddock
Contributors 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 Biggs
A Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds

This 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/actionline
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 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

In 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 Maddock
Contributors 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 Biggs
A Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds

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.
Listen first on BBC Sounds from May 7th, 2026.
A Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds