Gangster BBC Radio 5 Live

A new series of Gangster tells the story of Viv Graham, a man who ran a protection empire which spanned Newcastle and beyond.
Viv Graham, a 17-stone man mountain, a man feared and revered in equal measure, came to dominate Tyneside’s nightlife through brutal and uncompromising violence.
His murder, in an organised hit on New Year’s Eve 1993, sparked recriminations and repercussions which echo to this day. It remains one of the country’s most notorious unsolved murders.
Presenter – Livvy Haydock
Series Producer – Ben Robinson
Technical Producer – Richard Hannaford
Producer – Patrick Kiteley
Archive Researcher – Jackie Mccoy
Journalism Assistant – Tim Fernley
With assistance from Jamie Boyle
Commissioning Executive – Louise Kattenhorn
Assistant Commissioner – Lorraine Okuefuna & Sarah Green
Editor and Executive Producer – Clare Fordham

On New Year's Eve 1993, Viv Graham, a 17-stone man mountain, stepped out of a Tyneside pub and walked a few yards towards his Ford Sierra Cosworth. But he never made it. Lurking in the shadows was a gunman who fired three shots at him from close range.
Viv, who ran a pub and club protection empire which spanned Newcastle and beyond, dragged himself back to the pub but his life was slipping away.
The murder of Viv Graham, right in the middle of his heartland territory, sent shockwaves through Tyneside which echo to this day.
In this podcast series Livvy Haydock delves into one of the country’s most notorious unsolved murders. It’s a story of brutal violence, drugs, guns, love, loyalty and betrayal.
She investigates how a charming boy from a village in the country, grew to become one of the most fearsome enforcers in the country, ruling over Newcastle’s nightlife with an iron fist.
What made Viv Graham stand out? How did he rise to the top? And who was he really?
In episode one, Livvy travels back to Viv Graham’s roots and discovers a young man trying to find his way in an era when the heavy industries, which had dominated the North East for generations, were fast dying out. Employment opportunities and future prospects looked bleak and many people were leaving the North East in search of work. But Viv Graham took a very different approach. Through a relentless regime of boxing and weightlifting, he set about transforming himself into a one-man wrecking machine. The sort of person who could come in very handy on the doors in Newcastle at the very moment the city was emerging as one of Europe’s party capitals.
Presenter – Livvy Haydock
Series Producer – Ben Robinson
Technical Producer – Richard Hannaford
Producer – Patrick Kiteley
Archive Researcher – Jackie Mccoy
Journalism Assistant – Tim Fernley
With assistance from Jamie Boyle
Commissioning Executive – Louise Kattenhorn
Assistant Commissioner – Lorraine Okuefuna & Sarah Green
Editor and Executive Producer – Clare Fordham
Archive credits:
Get Carter - Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios.
Auf Wiedersehen Pet - Central Independent Television and Witzend Productions.
Discovery Museum, Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Viv Graham, a young man from the country, is about to land in the city and make a very big impression. In fact he’s going to take over the town.
This episode charts Viv Graham’s meteoric rise. It follows in his footsteps as he went from being a complete unknown, to single-handedly controlling a pub and club door protection empire, which spanned Newcastle and beyond.
Viv’s first move was to approach one of the city’s most colourful characters – Paul Tucker Grant – a doorman and boxer, who’d later go on to have a glittering acting career. With Paul’s help Viv got his first door – a nightclub in Gateshead. Viv quickly grew a reputation for ruthless efficiency. Troublemakers would be removed and dispatched and no matter who they were they wouldn’t cross Viv Graham. He became known, feared and revered in equal measure. This was a man who would never pick up a weapon but nor would he shy away from dealing with anyone who crossed his path.
More and more pub and club owners sought out Viv’s services and an empire formed – right at the moment Newcastle was exploding as a party capital. The city’s historic Bigg Market was transformed with dozens of trendy new bars and restaurants, while the Tuxedo Princess, a ferry turned nightclub moored on the Tyne, drew in revellers from far and wide.
Viv was well on his way to dominating the city’s bouncing nightlife and anyone who crossed him would face the consequences.
Presenter – Livvy Haydock
Series Producer – Ben Robinson
Technical Producer – Richard Hannaford
Producer – Patrick Kiteley
Archive Researcher – Jackie Mccoy
Journalism Assistant – Tim Fernley
With assistance from Jamie Boyle
Commissioning Executive – Louise Kattenhorn
Assistant Commissioner – Lorraine Okuefuna & Sarah Green
Editor and Executive Producer – Clare Fordham
Archive credits
Emmerdale - Yorkshire Television.
Byker Grove - Zenith Entertainment.
The Tube - Tyne Tees Television.

Viv Graham is right at the peak of his powers.
After starting as a nightclub doorman in Gateshead, he has grown to become the most powerful figure in Tyneside’s booming nightlife, with a vast pub and club protection empire. But trouble is brewing because a new party drug is landing and it’s going to turn his world upside down.
This episode charts the arrival of ecstasy in the North East and the dramatic changes it had on the region’s nightlife. A prominent DJ in Newcastle, Tom Caulker, remembers it all like it was yesterday - especially when the criminal gangs launched vicious battles to try to control the lucrative supplies of ecstasy in to clubs. The problem? Viv Graham had swathes of Tyneside’s most lucrative clubs and pubs sewn up - and he played by his own rules. These were dangerous times for Viv Graham and anyone associated with him. Guns were freely available among the criminal underworld and they were pointing at Viv Graham.
Presenter – Livvy Haydock
Series Producer – Ben Robinson
Technical Producer – Richard Hannaford
Producer – Patrick Kiteley
Archive Researcher – Jackie Mccoy
Journalism Assistant – Tim Fernley
With assistance from Jamie Boyle
Commissioning Executive – Louise Kattenhorn
Assistant Commissioner – Lorraine Okuefuna & Sarah Green
Editor and Executive Producer – Clare Fordham
Archive
Credits: Zulu - Diamond Films

It’s the summer of 1989 and the atmosphere on Tyneside is febrile. The economy is shrinking and tumbling towards recession but at the same time the nightlife is bouncing. And among the criminal underworld battles are raging to control the supply of drugs into pubs and clubs. Viv Graham is right in the firing line and danger lurks on every corner.
This episode tracks Viv Graham as he linked up with a member of the notorious Sayers crime firm. Graham was recruited to lead a vicious gang attack on another nightclub bouncer called Stu Watson. Graham pounded Watson with a relentless barrage of punches which left his victim bloodied and dazed. Stu Watson told presenter Livvy Haydock he was powerless to defend himself because he feared he would have been killed if he did.
What nobody knew was the club was under police surveillance as part of a drugs operation. The whole savage incident was recorded on CCTV and witnessed by undercover officers. Moments after the attack, Graham was arrested and later sentenced to three years in jail. Graham’s spell inside was every bit as colourful as his life on the streets of Tyneside. On one occasion he earned widespread acclaim for single-handedly quelling a riot but on another he swallowed a lump of cannabis which had been smuggled in to the prison. Viv Graham was said to have slept for days. It would be the only respite he’d be getting because dark clouds were forming.
Presenter – Livvy Haydock
Series Producer – Ben Robinson
Technical Producer – Richard Hannaford
Producer – Patrick Kiteley
Archive Researcher – Jackie Mccoy
Journalism Assistant – Tim Fernley
With assistance from Jamie Boyle
Commissioning Executive – Louise Kattenhorn
Assistant Commissioner – Lorraine Okuefuna & Sarah Green
Editor and Executive Producer – Clare Fordham
Archive credits:
Nick Manners v Joe Calzaghe boxing commentary - Eurosport.

A 6-part true crime podcast documenting the biggest organised crime bust in British policing history. It happens in 2020 when police in France penetrate an encrypted phone network called EncroChat. According to police, the phones were used exclusively by criminals.

For over two months, police forces across Europe were reading the secret communications of major league criminal networks. The Metropolitan Police, working with the National Crime Agency and other forces, used this information to uncover the workings of organised crime groups.

“It was like being in a room with them and they are talking freely, and they don't see you there,” says DCI Driss Hayoukane, the Senior Investigating Officer who led the Met’s EncroChat operation.

Police went public about the EncroChat hack in July 2020. This is the first time that the inside story of some of the Met’s biggest EncroChat cases has been told to a broadcaster.

Talking exclusively to BBC Sounds, police officers reveal how they used the gangsters’ messages to uncover arms dealing and expose murder plots as well as major drug trafficking and money laundering operations. Stories featured in the series include:
- A murder plot unearthed by the Met in a joint operation with South Wales police.
- Two apparently legitimate businessmen, living in a Buckinghamshire village, whose wealth really came from cocaine trafficking and major league money laundering,
- A corrupt police officer who was working for a notorious London crime group.
At a time when the Metropolitan Police Service has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons, it’s a story of an extraordinary success: nearly 1000 arrests; over 400 convictions; the seizure of £19 million in cash, three tonnes of Class A and B drugs and 49 guns.

Presenter Mobeen Azhar does not shy away from what have been difficult issues for the Met police: an officer from the Met’s anti-corruption unit speaks for the first time about how hacked EncroChat messages helped to expose the worst case of police corruption he had ever seen; and Mobeen asks the officer leading the Met’s EncroChat investigation about the experience of being an ethnic minority officer in a force found to be institutionally racist.

Catching the Kingpins is a BBC Studios Production for BBC Sounds.

Presenter: Mobeen Azhar
Series Producer: Andrew Hosken
Editor and Executive Producer: Innes Bowen
Sound designer: Peregrine Andrews
Assistant Commissioner: Lorraine Okuefuna
Commissioning Editor: Louise Kattenhorn
Production Executive: Laura Jordan-Rowell
Creative Director for BBC Studios: Georgia Moseley
Unit Manager: Lucy Bannister
Production manager: Elaina Boateng
Development Executive: Anya Saunders
Editorial Policy Advice: Su Pennington
Legal advice: Hashim Mude and Andrew Downey
Consulting editor: Steve Boulton
Production Co-ordinator: Juliette Harvey
Thanks also to Beena Khetani, Adele Humbert, Hugh Levinson, Ali Rezakhani, Rhiannon Cobb, and Jack Griffith.