Sean Bean Investigates History’s Most Notorious Criminals In Original Gangsters With Sean Bean
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Carl Roberts 
The most notorious criminals in history are investigated in Original Gangsters With Sean Bean. This will be on Sky History and History Play soon.
Original Gangsters with Sean Bean (4×60) starts Tuesday, 4 November at 9 pm on Sky HISTORY and HISTORY Play. Over four gripping one-hour episodes, acclaimed actor Sean Bean guides audiences on a compelling journey. He explores the lives of history’s most notorious criminals. Who were they really, and what can their stories tell us about the world today?
From Al Capone to the real Peaky Blinders, from The Krays twins to the Queen of Harlem, each episode of Original Gangsters follows Sean Bean on a deep dive. It takes viewers through a rogues’ gallery of some of the most notorious criminals in history. Sean and a team of experts work together to separate fact from fiction. Together, they discover the significance of these figures today. They also explore why their legacies have endured.
From award-winning production company Redeeming Features, this exclusive Sky HISTORY series fuses cinematic reenactment and expert talking head interviews to bring these infamous characters to life, like never before. We will hear from some of the world’s leading experts on each of our four subjects: Al Capone, The Peaky Blinders, Stephanie St Clair, Billy Hill, and the Krays, to find out what made these extraordinary characters tick.
EPISODE INFORMATION
EPISODE 1: PEAKY BLINDERS
Tuesday 4th November | Sky HISTORY and HISTORY Play | 9pm
Delving into the reality behind Steven Knight’s smash hit BBC drama, Sean Bean unveils the real-life Peaky Blinders. They terrorised Birmingham in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. From the labyrinthine alleyways of industrial Birmingham in the 1860s, through riots and deadly gang warfare. There, the city’s ruffians battled with police and entered the early twentieth century. Rogue street mobs coalesced to become organised and eventually united under one man: Billy Kimber. With testimony from Carl Chinn, the world’s leading expert on Birmingham crime and the Peaky Blinders, discover more on the people behind history’s first intercity gang war. (S1, Ep1)
EPISODE 2: AL CAPONE
Tuesday 11th November | Sky HISTORY and HISTORY Play | 9pm
Al Capone is the man largely responsible for the gangster archetype from which all subsequent images are drawn. 78 years after his death, Sean Bean shines the spotlight on the original Scarface and Alcatraz’s most famous resident. There is exclusive testimony from the Capone family alongside expert analysis by historians. Never-before-seen psychological analysis turns the lens of science on the 20th Century’s most famous criminal. It examines Al Capone’s complex personal life and complicated legacy. As well as the minutiae of his character, like his obsession with pinstripe suits and the intense shame he felt over his scars. (S1, Ep2)
EPISODE 3: STEPHANIE ST. CLAIR
Tuesday 18th November | Sky HISTORY and HISTORY Play | 9pm
Host Sean Bean recounts the life of Stephanie St. Clair, a now-forgotten but once-powerful woman. She forcefully ruled Harlem’s numbers rackets with an iron fist. She arrived in New York in 1911 from the French Caribbean, which led to her running Harlem’s first numbers racket in the 1920s. Fiercely independent, St. Clair empowered her community with jobs, legal advice and calls to ‘buy Black’, keeping money in Harlem. She earned hundreds of thousands of dollars annually and publicly challenged both corrupt police and mobsters like Dutch Schultz. Even after surviving assassination attempts. However, in 1938, after an attempted murder charge for shooting her then-husband, she faded from prominence and eventually died in obscurity in 1969. (S1, Ep3)
EPISODE 4: BILLY HILL & THE KRAYS
Tuesday 25th November | Sky HISTORY and HISTORY Play | 9pm
Exploring the violent rise and legacy of two notorious crime factions, host Sean Bean traces how Ronnie and Reggie Kray spent the majority of their lives behind bars, while London’s original ‘Gentleman Gangster’ Billy Hill lived out his days as a free man. Beginning in post-WWII London, Hill’s charm and calculated brutality in the 1940s and 50s earned him control over gambling, protection rackets and Soho’s criminal elite. But as the 1960s dawned, the volatile Krays emerged, combining celebrity allure with savage ambition. As Hill retired from gangster life, he watched his criminal legacy be challenged by the twins’ unpredictable violence, as they failed to learn the lessons he tried to impart and ultimately saw them pay dearly for it. (S1, Ep4)
Original Gangsters With Sean Bean premieres on Sky History and History Play on November 4th.
Introducing Carl! As the News Editor at Future of the Force, Carl has been an invaluable member of our team since early 2016. His expertise and dedication have made him an integral part of our editorial staff. Beyond his professional role, Carl is a fervent supporter of Liverpool F.C. and an avid follower of pop culture. He has a deep passion for Halloween, Friday the 13th, and the iconic movie franchises Star Wars and Star Trek.
He can be found either at his neighborhood cinema, enjoying the latest releases on the big screen, or at home streaming the newest blockbuster movies.
