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BBC Radio 5 Live

How did a small-time carpenter with a minor and fumbled role in a 1963 violent heist become Britain's most famous fugitive and - for many - an unlikely folk hero?

From gangland tea boy to Brazilian playboy, this series recounts the controversial rollercoaster life of Ronnie Biggs in his own words, through previously unheard recordings.

Actor Daniel Mays, who portrayed the Great Train Robber in a major ITV drama, hosts the podcast, marking the 25th anniversary of Biggs' return to Britain to face justice after 36 years on the run.

Gangster

The Great Train Robber fugitive faces a stark choice: depression, debt and death in Rio ... or surrender to the UK justice system.

Twenty-five years ago, Britain Most Wanted septuagenarian ceremoniously flew home on a private jet chartered by The Sun newspaper, after 35 years on the run. Some celebrated him as a hero, others demanded he live the rest of his days in Belmarsh Prison. 

As the series comes to a close, actor Daniel Mays reflects on how and why Britain built-up the Ronnie Biggs myth.

Credits:
Presenter - Daniel Mays
Producers - Phoebe McIndoe & Jude Shapiro
Executive Producer - Jack Howson
Associate Exec - Chris Pickard
Mix Engineering - Will Fitzpatrick
Commissioning Producer - Sam Proffitt
Commissioning Executive - Louise Kattenhorn
Commissioning Editor - Richard Maddock

Contributors include:
Ursula and Chris Crocker, ex-housemates of Biggs
Professor Dick Hobbs, criminologist
Colin MacKenzie, crime reporter for the Daily Express
Professor Ruth Penfold-Mounce, celebrity crime expert
Chris Pickard, ghostwriter for Biggs
Nick Reynolds, sculptor and son of the Great Train Robbery gang leader
Jim Shreim, documentarian and neighbour of Biggs
Noel ‘Razor’ Smith, writer and former armed robber
Brian Stone, cellmate of Biggs
Mike Sullivan, crime editor for The Sun
Reverend Dave Tomlinson, officiant at Biggs's funeral

A Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds

6. The White Cliffs of Dover

Buy your ticket for ‘The Ronnie Biggs Experience’. For fifty dollars you will be entitled to Brazilian barbecue, a few beers, and an intimate audience with an international celebrity fugitive. Branded T-Shirts are available upon request.

Live music may be provided by the Sex Pistols or, otherwise, a pop band of adorable children. 

Warning: the risk of a kidnap attempt occurring within the duration of this event is high. Snakes are also a known hazard.

This episode has been edited since publication.

Credits:
Presenter - Daniel Mays
Producers - Phoebe McIndoe & Jude Shapiro
Executive Producer - Jack Howson
Associate Exec - Chris Pickard
Mix Engineering - Will Fitzpatrick
Commissioning Producer - Sam Proffitt
Commissioning Executive - Louise Kattenhorn
Commissioning Editor - Richard Maddock

Contributors include:
Michael ‘Breiti’ Breitkopf & Bruce Henry Leitman, musical collaborators of Biggs
Ursula Crocker, ex-housemate of Biggs
Colin MacKenzie, crime reporter for the Daily Express
Professor Ruth Penfold-Mounce, celebrity crime expert
Chris Pickard, ghostwriter for Biggs
Alex Popovics, son of Biggs’ partner Ulla Sopher
John Robb, musician and punk critic
Jim Shreim, documentarian and neighbour of Biggs

A Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds

5. The Magic Balloon Gang

Welcome to Rio in 1970. Home to the most beautiful football team the world has ever known. Home to a brutal military dictatorship. And, now, home of the last Great Train Robber at large.

The Ronnie Biggs rollercoaster is about to crank up for another wild ride that takes in a Scotland Yard sting, samba, teenage pregnancy, the tabloid scoop of the decade, and an accidental legal loophole that defies the British government.

Credits:
Presenter - Daniel Mays
Producers - Phoebe McIndoe & Jude Shapiro
Executive Producer - Jack Howson
Associate Exec - Chris Pickard
Mix Engineering - Will Fitzpatrick
Commissioning Producer - Sam Proffitt
Commissioning Executive - Louise Kattenhorn
Commissioning Editor - Richard Maddock

Contributors include:
Ursula and Chris Crocker, ex-housemates of Biggs
Colin MacKenzie, crime reporter for the Daily Express
Chris Pickard, ghostwriter for Biggs
Jim Shreim, documentarian and neighbour of Biggs
Noel ‘Razor’ Smith, writer and former armed robber

A Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds

4. The Slip-Up

What price freedom? And why should you never wear crocodile shoes when you’re on the run?!

While the rest of the Great Train Robbery gang are serving thirty-year sentences, the runaways are enjoying the delights of mid-sixties Paris and Las Vegas. But the life of an outlaw is not all about cabaret clubs, Frank Sinatra residencies, and sweet freedom … painful plastic surgery and familial misery is part of the package too. 

Credits:
Presenter - Daniel Mays
Producers - Phoebe McIndoe & Jude Shapiro
Executive Producer - Jack Howson
Associate Exec - Chris Pickard
Mix Engineering - Will Fitzpatrick
Additional Production Support - Ashley Clivery
Commissioning Producer - Sam Proffitt
Commissioning Executive - Louise Kattenhorn
Commissioning Editor - Richard Maddock

Contributors include:
Ian Dowding, nephew of Biggs
Doctor Sharonna Pearl, historian and face theorist
Nick Reynolds, sculptor and son of the Great Train Robbery gang leader
Noel ‘Razor’ Smith, writer and former armed robber
Brian Stone, cellmate of Biggs

A Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds

3. The Land of Milk and Honey

This episode contains reference to self harm.

We’re in Wandsworth Prison, where the lights never go out. And where freedom for Ronnie Biggs might only be a chess game or a rope climb away … 

Meanwhile - outside the jail walls - the British establishment is shaking under the weight of working-class anger, the Profumo affair, the Swinging Sixties, and a media frenzy at the severe sentences handed down to the Great Train Robbers. 

If you or someone you know has been affected by any of the issues raised in this programme, details of organisations offering information and support can be found at bbc.co.uk/actionline

Credits: 
Presenter - Daniel Mays 
Producers - Phoebe McIndoe & Jude Shapiro 
Executive Producer - Jack Howson 
Associate Exec - Chris Pickard 
Mix Engineering - Will Fitzpatrick 
Additional Production Support - Ashley Clivery 
Commissioning Producer - Sam Proffitt 
Commissioning Executive - Louise Kattenhorn 
Commissioning Editor - Richard Maddock 

Contributors include: 
Professor Dick Hobbs, criminologist 
Noel ‘Razor’ Smith, writer and former armed robber 
Brian Stone, cellmate of Biggs 

A Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds

2. The Hate Factory

In 1963, a small-time South London carpenter joins the biggest robbery in British history for one reason - he knows a retired train driver who is semi-competent. And yet Ronnie Biggs will, for the next fifty years, be far more famous than the man who planned it, the rest of the gang who pulled it off, the train driver who was so brutally attacked, or the Scotland Yard detectives who solved the case. 

How exactly is a criminal ‘legend’ born? Actor Daniel Mays delves into unheard Ronnie Biggs tapes and takes us back to the rubble of post-war London to find out …

Credits:
Presenter - Daniel Mays
Producers - Phoebe McIndoe & Jude Shapiro
Executive Producer - Jack Howson
Associate Exec - Chris Pickard
Mix Engineering - Will Fitzpatrick
Additional Production Support - Ashley Clivery
Commissioning Producer - Sam Proffitt
Commissioning Executive - Louise Kattenhorn
Commissioning Editor - Richard Maddock

Contributors include:
Professor Dick Hobbs, criminologist
Nick Reynolds, sculptor and son of the Great Train Robbery gang leader
Noel ‘Razor’ Smith, writer and former armed robber
Brian Stone, cellmate of Biggs

A Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds

1. The Big One

How did a small-time carpenter with a minor and fumbled role in a 1963 violent heist become Britain’s most famous fugitive and - for many - an unlikely folk hero? From gangland tea boy to Brazilian playboy, this series recounts the controversial rollercoaster life of Ronnie Biggs in his own words, through previously unheard recordings. 

Actor Daniel Mays, who portrayed the Great Train Robber in a major ITV drama, hosts the podcast, marking the 25th anniversary of Biggs’ return to Britain to face justice after 36 years on the run.

Listen first on BBC Sounds from May 7th, 2026.

A Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds

Introducing Gangster Presents: The Story of Ronnie Biggs

It’s the 1990s and Wo Shing Wo gangsters think they’re untouchable. Georgie Pai is fighting yet another deportation order after being caught in the UK again. He’s granted bail on the condition that he reports weekly to a local police station.

Meanwhile, a team of television journalists set up a sting in Manchester, aiming to expose how the Triads operate. The broadcast is devastating, a huge ‘loss of face’, which in the eyes of many in the Chinese community turns Georgie Pai from a feared villain to laughingstock overnight. Georgie Pai ends up fleeing to Cheltenham, leaving the Triad life behind him. But in the gang world, there’s always someone waiting in the wings to become top dog.

Presenter: Livvy Haydock
Series Producer: Hayley Mortimer
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
Producers: Patrick Kiteley & Matt Toulson
Fixer in Hong Kong: Michelle Chan
Music: Andy Simms and Reliable Source Music
Journalism Assistants: Hattie Valentine & Ellie Dover
Commissioning Producer: Sam Proffitt 
Commissioning Executive: Lorraine Okuefuna and Louise Kattenhorn
Commissioning Editor: Richard Maddock
Editor and Executive Producer: Clare Fordham

Archive: The Cook Report: Meet The Triads (Central Television, ITV)

6. Losing Face

A video war is raging across Britain’s Chinatowns, fuelled by a booming market for Hong Kong films and soaps, copied and rented out for huge profit. In Manchester, Wo Shing Wo quickly seizes control, establishing a near-monopoly on the lucrative video rental trade.

But where money flows, so does violence. In Glasgow, restaurant owner Philip Wong is brutally murdered by contract killers wielding machetes. Police suspect his death came after he refused to cooperate with Wo Shing Wo, who demanded a share of his profitable Chinese video business. Despite investigations, the three men wanted for the murder have never been traced.

Presenter: Livvy Haydock
Series Producer: Hayley Mortimer
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
Producers: Patrick Kiteley & Matt Toulson
Fixer in Hong Kong: Michelle Chan
Music: Andy Simms and Reliable Source Music
Journalism Assistants: Hattie Valentine & Ellie Dover
Commissioning producer: Sam Proffitt 
Commissioning executive: Lorraine Okuefuna and Louise Kattenhorn
Commissioning editor: Richard Maddock
Editor and Executive Producer: Clare Fordham

Archive: The Cook Report: Meet The Triads (Central Television, ITV)

5. Video Wars

By the 1980s, Georgie Pai has been arrested in Glastonbury for overstaying a tourist visa, found guilty of terrorising Chinese communities in Southampton, and deported back to Hong Kong. But borders are no barrier for a man with the right connections. He slips back into Britain and continues to expand his empire.

Manchester becomes his nerve centre as police begin building a database of suspected Triad gangsters. But with Wo Shing Wo’s growing power comes a rising tide of violence. One of Georgie Pai’s associates is brutally attacked with machetes, a warning that it is far from an isolated incident. Across the UK, violent clashes between rival Triad factions are becoming alarmingly common, each gang carving up territory in a bloody, escalating turf war.

Presenter: Livvy Haydock
Series Producer: Hayley Mortimer
Technical Producer: Richard Hannaford
Producers: Patrick Kiteley & Matt Toulson
Fixer in Hong Kong: Michelle Chan
Music: Andy Simms and Reliable Source Music
Journalism Assistants: Hattie Valentine & Ellie Dover
Commissioning Producer: Sam Proffitt 
Commissioning Executive: Lorraine Okuefuna and Louise Kattenhorn
Commissioning Editor: Richard Maddock
Editor and Executive Producer: Clare Fordham

5. The Magic Balloon Gang

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