The major selling point of Gangs of London (Sky Atlantic, Thursday, 9pm) is that it’s the most violent thing on television. Gorier than Game of Thrones. Scarier than Teletubbies. Spring-loaded with more high kicks, pirouettes and blood-curdling shrieks than Ryan Tubridy’s big song-and-dance number on The Late Late Toy Show. It’s that terrifying.
But for Irish viewers the series, returning for its second season after a two-year absence, arguably peaked too soon by killing off Colm Meaney in the first episode. Meaney played Finn Wallace, patriarch of a London crime dynasty. In his absence all-out war broke out in the Cockney underworld, and as Gangs of London returns that conflict rumbles on.
Goodness, there’s a lot of bloodshed. Episode one features gouged eyes, distended jawbones and a scene in which a hard man forces a gangster to swallow three bullets and then shoot his comrade
This is one of those shows where finding someone to root for can be a chore. Every character is a different flavour of nasty. That includes Michelle Fairley, the Antrim actor who will be forever known as Catelyn Stark from Game of Thrones and who here plays Finn’s vengeful widow, Marian.
The closest Gangs of London comes to a hero is in Paapa Essiedu as the corrupt financier Alexander Dumani. He is introduced looking out of the window of a gleaming office block, contemplating both the city beyond and his waiting destiny. With his shiny suit and slick patter, he comes across more like a candidate on The Apprentice than a ruthless money launderer. You’re forever expecting him to put himself forward as team lead while Karren Brady gawps in disapproval.
But instead of Brady looking disappointed, or Alan Sugar pointing his stubby finger of doom, the excitement in Gangs of London flows from the bloodshed. Goodness, there’s a lot of it. Episode one features gouged eyes, distended jawbones and a scene in which the Palestinian hard man Koba forces a gangster to swallow three bullets and then shoot his comrade.
Written down, this makes Gangs of London sound like disposable Brit grit. The show was a sensation when it debuted in 2020, however, and is one of Sky Atlantic’s biggest hits this side of Game of Thrones.
What’s the appeal? It isn’t the dialogue, which makes Peaky Blinders sound like David Mamet. Nor can Gangs of London be accused of reeling you in with a multifaceted plot, given that the storyline consists of unpleasant individuals laying into one another with guns, fists, meathooks and more. It’s all down to the action, which draws on the background of its creator, Gareth Evans, in “gun-fu” cinema and movies such as The Raid.
All that’s missing this season is an Irishman with a big head and a sweary mouth. Time, in other words, to resurrect Finn Wallace. Sure, he’s dead. But that didn’t stop Game of Thrones from reviving Jon Snow
Yet it’s hard not to feel that Evans is resting on his locked-and-loaded laurels slightly. A few years ago he took a break from the action genre to make Apostle, a deranged folk-horror film, set in Wales, starring Michael Sheen as an insane preacher. It was an enjoyably gruesome updating of The Wicker Man — and considerably smarter and more gripping than Gangs of London.
But he reverts emphatically to first principles as Gangs returns to Sky. And it has everything fans will want from the series, which is to say roaring geezers and geysers of gore.
All that’s missing is an Irishman with a big head and a sweary mouth. Time, in other words, to resurrect Finn Wallace. Sure, he’s dead. But that didn’t stop Game of Thrones from reviving Jon Snow. And given that Gangs of London is determined to usurp Thrones as TV’s most shocking franchise, the logic is irrefutable. The Colm Meaney comeback campaign starts here.
