When the Euro 2000 championships descended into riotous mayhem caused by British fans, the Government rushed legislation through Parliament. Yet such violence is nothing new: in the mid-fifties Lord Boothby condemned rioting following a screening of the film Rock around the Clock, while in the mid-sixties gangs of mods and rockers terrorised bank holiday crowds on Brighton beach "because we like hitting people". Professor Dick Hobbs traces the evolution of the British thug across more than half a century and seeks to understand the motivation of those involved in what seems little more than mindless Violence. Producer Paul Kobrak