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BBC Radio 5 Live

New Series: Gangster Presents: Sex, Drugs & Cell Block Parties.

A secret and dangerous affair. An out-of-control addiction. It ends with the smashing of the UK’s biggest prison smuggling gang, but it all begins with a love story…

Journalist Amber Haque untangles what happens when mental health nurse Amy Hatfield meets convicted criminal Joe Whittingham. Her investigation leads into a world of blackmail and manipulation, where you never quite know who to trust or who's watching.

Gangster

The last thing mental health nurse Amy expected to encounter when she took a job at Lindholme prison was someone offering romance.

Then she met Joe - cheeky, brimming with charisma and a career criminal.

But surely she knows better than to listen to his relentless attempts to charm her….

Credits
Host: Amber Haque
Producer: Becca Bryers
Sound design: Ivor Manley
Executive producer: Joe Kent

A BBC Studios production for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live

1. When Amy Met Joe

The story of the biggest prison smuggling plot ever busted in the UK - and the love story at the heart of it. 

Journalist Amber Haque untangles what happens when mental health nurse Amy Hatfield meets convicted criminal Joe Whittingham. Her investigation leads into a world of blackmail and manipulation, where you never quite know who to trust or who's watching.

Credits
Host: Amber Haque
Producer: Becca Bryers
Sound design: Ivor Manley and Andy Fell
Story and music consultant: Emma Weatherill 
Development by: Rob Byrne, Rhiannon Nevada and Emma Shaw
Production management: Gaelan Davis-Connolly and Debbie Wadell 
Executive producer: Joe Kent
Commissioning support: Sam Profitt 
Commissioning executive: Louise Kattenhorn and Lorraine Okuefuna
Commissioning editor: Richard Maddock
A BBC Studios production for BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live

Gangster Presents... Sex, Drugs & Cell Block Parties

Linda spends the next 18 years behind bars with some of the UK's most notorious female killers. She shares stories of a life inside, a shock prison wedding and returning back to reality and a life on the straight and narrow.

With her criminal past behind her, Linda reflects on the effect of her crimes both on the victims, and on her two children left to grow up without their parents.

Credits
Presenter: Livvy Haydock
Series Producer: Kate West
Producers: Patrick Kiteley and Matthew Bone
Journalism Assistants: Tim Fernley and Ellie Dover
Drama Writer: Paul Jones
Sound Design: Richard Hannaford
Assistant Commissioner: Lorraine Okuefuna
Commissioning Editor: Richard Maddock
Editors and Executive Producers: Carl Johnston and Clare Fordham

The Black Widow: 6. Til Death Do Us Part

After being released from prison, Linda's living the quiet life catching up on lost time with her two kids.

Trouble soon finds her again as Ronnie Cook's sentence also comes to an end. When Linda brings Ronnie home for a visit, the couple are confronted by a hitman and Linda's small kitchen is turned into a brutal murder scene.

But as police begin to question Linda, they discover that the 'The Black Widow' could have her boyfriend's blood on her hands in more ways than one.

Credits
Presenter: Livvy Haydock
Series Producer: Kate West
Producers: Patrick Kiteley and Matthew Bone
Journalism Assistants: Tim Fernley and Ellie Dover
Drama Writer: Paul Jones
Sound Design: Richard Hannaford
Assistant Commissioner: Lorraine Okuefuna
Commissioning Editor: Richard Maddock
Editors and Executive Producers: Carl Johnston and Clare Fordham

The Black Widow: 5. Spilt Milk

A partial fingerprint at the scene of a violent robbery puts the flying squad on Linda's trail. While they watch, she continues to live the high life funding by a spate of terrifying armed raids.

A team of officers recall the day they caught Linda red handed at yet another Post Office heist, and when Linda finds herself at the wrong end of the barrel of a gun, she knows her time is up.

But her time inside takes an unexpected turn, as she finds a life for herself inside Holloway.

Credits
Presenter: Livvy Haydock
Series Producer: Kate West
Producers: Patrick Kiteley and Matthew Bone
Journalism Assistants: Tim Fernley and Ellie Dover
Drama Writer: Paul Jones
Sound Design: Richard Hannaford
Assistant Commissioner: Lorraine Okuefuna
Commissioning Editor: Richard Maddock
Editors and Executive Producers: Carl Johnston and Clare Fordham

The Black Widow: 4. The Two Minute Rule

Linda discovers Ronnie's dark side as he lets slip a shocking secret about the day Mickey died.

She can't leave Ronnie, because he's too dangerous. But luckily for Linda, the police solve that problem for her - catching Ronnie red handed trying to pull off a million pound heist.

With Ronnie out of the way, Linda begins her mission to become an armed robber in an underworld ruled by men.

Credits
Presenter: Livvy Haydock
Series Producer: Kate West
Producers: Patrick Kiteley and Matthew Bone
Journalism Assistants: Tim Fernley and Ellie Dover
Drama Writer: Paul Jones
Sound Design: Richard Hannaford
Assistant Commissioner: Lorraine Okuefuna
Commissioning Editor: Richard Maddock
Editors and Executive Producers: Carl Johnston and Clare Fordham

The Black Widow: 3. Cops and Robbers

Linda, Mickey and the kids are living the high life when he agrees to take on a job with a new gang - a raid on a cash collection at a London supermarket just before Christmas.

As Linda waits at home, armed police are lying in wait outside the supermarket. When the police rush towards them, the rest of Mickey's team flee, leaving him alone on the crowded street clutching his weapon. He is shot dead.

When Linda hears of her husband's death something inside her snaps and at his graveside she makes a vow to provide for their two young kids by carrying on his "work" as an armed robber. But before she can get started, another man comes on the scene - someone altogether more deadly and dangerous.

Credits
Presenter: Livvy Haydock
Series Producer: Kate West
Producers: Patrick Kiteley and Matthew Bone
Journalism Assistants: Tim Fernley and Ellie Dover
Drama Writer: Paul Jones
Sound Design: Richard Hannaford
Assistant Commissioner: Lorraine Okuefuna
Commissioning Editor: Richard Maddock
Editors and Executive Producers: Carl Johnston and Clare Fordham

The Black Widow: 2. A Widow's Vow

Linda Welford was raised in London's East End in the 1960s; a tight and tough community with a reputation for a thriving criminal underworld, ruled with an iron fist by gangsters like the Kray twins.

One of nine children, Linda lived a sheltered life with her family in Stepney until she met armed robber Mickey Calvey. This was the so-called golden age of armed robbery and Mickey was making a fortune sticking up banks and Post Offices with a sawn-off shotgun.

When Mickey and Linda got married, she was allowed a front seat to Mickey's 'work,' as his gang begin planning robberies around their kitchen table. Not content with just making the teas, Linda starts to make suggestions and finds she has a taste for a life of crime.

Credits
Presenter: Livvy Haydock
Series Producer: Kate West
Producers: Patrick Kiteley and Matthew Bone
Journalism Assistants: Tim Fernley and Ellie Dover
Drama Writer: Paul Jones
Sound Design: Richard Hannaford
Assistant Commissioner: Lorraine Okuefuna
Commissioning Editor: Richard Maddock
Editors and Executive Producers: Carl Johnston and Clare Fordham

The Black Widow: 1. Spinning the Web

Livvy Haydock explores the extraordinary life of Linda Calvey, the woman they call "the Black Widow." She rose through the ranks of London’s criminal underworld to become the UK’s most notorious female gangster.

We follow her journey from humble beginnings in East London to time served in the infamous H Wing, alongside killers like Myra Hindley and Rose West.

It’s a story of love, loyalty, betrayal and murder, of a woman who fell for a bank robber and ended up leading a gang of her own.

Linda was a young mum living in the East End when her husband Mickey was shot dead by police during a robbery. After his death, she stepped into his world. What followed was a descent into armed robberies and organised crime, culminating in a killing that would result in a life sentence in prison.

She was nicknamed the Black Widow by a police officer, as all her husbands and lovers ended up either dead or behind bars.

Now 76, Linda tells her story in her own words. And for the first time her children, Melanie and Neil, speak out about the lasting consequences of her criminal past.

We also hear from detectives in the Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad, aka The Sweeney, the men and women who were tasked with bringing criminals like Linda to justice.

This podcast includes strong language and descriptions of violence.

Credits
Presenter: Livvy Haydock
Series Producer: Kate West
Producers: Patrick Kiteley and Matthew Bone
Journalism Assistants: Tim Fernley and Ellie Dover
Drama Writer: Paul Jones
Sound Design: Richard Hannaford 
Assistant Commissioner: Lorraine Okuefuna 
Commissioning Editor: Richard Maddock
Editors and Executive Producers: Carl Johnston and Clare Fordham

Introducing Gangster: The Story of the Black Widow

Livvy Haydock examines the recent deaths of Eddie Lyons Jr. and Ross Monaghan, who were shot dead outside Monaghan’s Bar in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol, on 31 May 2025. Spanish police believe the killing was a targeted gangland hit linked to the decades-long conflict between the Daniels and Lyons crime families in Glasgow. 

Livvy tracks down eyewitnesses to the double shooting, retraces the getaway route used by the killer and speaks to detectives who give their expert insight into how the murders were carried out. We investigate how the violent feud between the Lyons and Daniel crime families has travelled so far and ask; who is actually pulling the strings?

For a who's who, please visit this BBC article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/4Czgw23hf0tqsb855CcPKPJ/who-s-who-in-the-story-of-the-daniels-and-the-lyons

Presenter Livvy Haydock
Series producer: Paul Grant
Researchers: Matt Toulson and Kaya Black
Production coordinator: Tim Fernley
Technical Producer: Craig Boardman
Editor: Tara McDermott

Gangster Presents... Sex, Drugs & Cell Block Parties

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