David Wilson's Crime Files

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A BBC TV channel for Scotland which will broadcast every evening and will show drama, factual, comedy and news programmes made in Scotland

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Factual: Crime & Justice

Professor David Wilson explores Scottish crimes.

Series 1

BBC Scotland

David Wilson's Crime Files: Series 1: Gangs

Gangs

BBC Scotland - David Wilson's Crime Files, Series 1, Gangs

Criminologist David Wilson investigates Glasgow's 'no mean city' gang culture.

Criminologist David Wilson investigates the origins of Glasgow’s alternative motto 'the no mean city', looking at gang culture past and present.

In this episode, Professor David Wilson and his guests look at Glasgow gang culture, arguing that the 'no mean city' motto is still very much applicable.

Investigative journalist Fiona Walker presents a short film about the 1930s era of gang culture - Glasgow's Peaky Blinders - and how they brought violence and fear to a city deeply scarred by overcrowding and poverty. She charts the efforts of the police to make war on the gangs and reinvent policing to do it, but how the authorities ultimately failed.

Fiona joins David in the studio and they discuss the deeper causes behind the rise of gang culture, especially sectarianism and unemployment and how being part of a gang in 1930s Glasgow was a badge of honour. She reveals how it evolved as the city's slums were cleared and the gangs became even more territorial.

David’s next guest is Tartan Noir author Malcolm Mackay, whose series Glasgow Trilogy charts the activities of a gunman for hire who works for an organised crime gang. Malcolm's work provides extraordinary insight into the workings of the criminal mind. He was in his twenties when he started writing the series and was once asked if he had ever been a hitman, so convincing are his inner dialogues.

In a short film, David presents his own study into a type of killer we know very little about and one evolved out of gang culture - the hitman. He argues that there are four types: the novice, the amateur, the journeyman and the master.

In the studio, David interviews a retired Glasgow detective sergeant who was on the front line of the fight against Glasgow's gang culture and has had numerous brushes with hitman incidents in the city. They discuss the huge difficulties of bringing this kind of organised crime killer to justice and how the war on gangs is being lost as they have evolved into multimillion-pound drug cartels.

David's final guest is the notorious Paul Ferris - one-time gang land enforcer and debt collector for 'Glasgow Godfather' Arthur Thompson. In a tense and confrontational interview, Ferris reveals details of his activities in the 'cess pit' of organised crime, discussing how he was eventually found guilty and imprisoned for possession of 'machine guns, grenades and detonators'. David argues that Ferris is so notorious that he and even his children will never be able to escape that reputation.

David Wilson's Crime Files: Series 1

A BBC TV channel for Scotland which will broadcast every evening and will show drama, factual, comedy and news programmes made in Scotland


Professor David Wilson and guests discuss Scottish crimes.

Ten-part series in which Professor David Wilson and guests discuss Scottish crimes.

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David Wilson's Crime Files

Series 1

Gangs

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