Britain's most notorious prisoner Charles Bronson lifts the lid on five decades spent behind bars in a series of recordings which detail A-lister meetings, sex fantasies, footballing exploits and, of course, violence.
In one of the most extraordinary accounts, Bronson - currently bidding to win his freedom following a public parole board hearing - discusses face-to-face conversations with A-lister Tom Hardy, claiming he taunted him as he felt he was too thin to play him in the movie about his life.
The meetings took place at HMP Wakefield Prison in the lead-up to Hardy playing him in the 2009 movie – with Bronson chatting to the Hollywood star from inside a cage.
The 70-year-old revealed that within a few months, the star beefed himself up with the help of a Hollywood personal trainer called Pnut – describing how he felt stunned when Hardy allowed him to feel his muscles through the bars of his cage and they felt “like concrete”.
Bronson also revealed he wants to bed two women in Dave Courtney's sex museum when he's freed and he even hopes to appear on the reboot of Big Brother – although he joked that he might take a hostage in there.
Steve Wraith, 51, an actor and real crime podcaster has had a two-decade friendship with Bronson, attending both of his prison weddings.
He has recorded the most intimate conversations ever revealed with the convict, who now calls himself Charles Salvador, and has shared them on his YouTube channel.
Steve, who appears in a new gangland flick out this summer, said: “The interviews with Charlie were done from his prison cell over two years. He opened his heart to me about his life – it was sometimes funny but sometimes brutal.
“He agreed to do this because from his perspective he realised that parole was on the horizon and he wanted to get the opportunity to show the world what the real Charles Salvador was really like. I was only too happy to help him. I think it is time that he got out.”
Teasing Tom Hardy
In a series of extraordinary recordings over two years from his prison cell to a pal, Bronson revealed: “He [Hardy] came to visit me three times.
“He got banned as they said we were running a business.
“It was mental. He'd just finished playing Bill Sykes in Oliver and when he came to visit me with the producer Danny Hansford I don't think he weighed 11-and-a-half stone, you know.
“My visits there were behind bars, like in a cage and as he walked in, I said: “F*** me, Tom, you're having a bubble ain't you mate? There's nothing of you!
“He said: “Don't worry about it. I'm getting a personal trainer over from Hollywood and I'll be bigger than you in a couple of months”.
“When he came to see me a couple of months later he was bigger than me. He was massive.
“I put my arms through the bars and felt his arms and his shoulders. It was like f***ing concrete mate.
“He was a lovely fella. But on the third visit, they banned him.”
He revealed for the first time that another A-lister was initially lined up to play him.
He said: "Jason Statham was supposed to play me but he wanted too much money.
“I don't think there's anyone in the world who could have played me better than Tom.
“I think he should play the next James Bond, to be honest.”
Last week Bronson made a bid for freedom after nearly 50 years in jail.
Dubbed one of Britain's most violent offenders, Bronson has been in prison for much of the last 50 years, often spending time in solitary confinement or specialist units.
He was sentenced in 2000 to a discretionary life term with a minimum of four years for taking a prison teacher at HMP Hull hostage for 44 hours.
Since then, the Parole Board has repeatedly refused to direct his release.
His first conviction was in 1974 when he was 21 and was jailed for seven years for robbery, aggravated burglary, assault with intent to rob and possession of a firearm.
He was convicted for wounding again in 1975, 1978 and 1985, and then in 1987 he was released from prison at the age of 34.
After 69 days he was back in prison, sentenced in 1988 to seven years for robbery at a jeweller’s shop.
He was later released from prison in 1992, but weeks later was jailed for eight years for intent to rob and has been behind bars since then for violent offences committed while in custody.
In 1994 he was given seven years for false imprisonment and blackmail, then in 1997 he took a deputy prison governor, staff and three inmates hostage for which he received five years.
Later, in 1999, he took an art teacher hostage for three days and was given a life sentence with a minimum term of three years which expired in 2003. In 2014 he was further sentenced to three years for assaulting a prison governor.
'Sex museum' fantasy
In one of the tapes, Bronson reveals he wants to borrow former EastEnd gangster Dave Courtney's “sex museum” for romps when he's a free man.
He said: “I'm going to bed with two birds you know. And I'm getting it filmed. I am...I'm telling you.
“I might borrow Dave Courtney's sex museum for a while,” he laughs.
Big Brother dreams
He also revealed he'd love to be a reality TV star on the reboot of Big Brother, which is in the pipeline.
He said: “Would I go in? O course I f***ing would. Listen, I'd go in that Big Brother just for a laugh and I'd take a hostage in there mate.
“And when it's all over I'd get on the roof and smash the f***ing place up.
“And, you know that Diary Room? I'd go in there and s*** it up.
“I'd go on it and they'd ban the f***ing programme again.”
On hoping for freedom
He also alleged historic brutality while he was serving time – something alluded to in last week's hearing when one psychologist claimed he had PTSD.
He said: “If I wasn't to get it [parole] I think there will be protests you know.
“I truly can't do any more than I've done for the past four or five years.
"The average screw opens my door, right, and basically says you shouldn't be in anymore Charlie and I say f***ing tell me about it.
"The joke is you know they can't even turn around and say 'you know if you let him out he might kill somebody'- who the f*** am I going to kill?
"I'm not gonna start now at 70 years old f***ing hell. It's insanity you know."
Prison roof protests
He described one specific protest in the summer of 1985 where spent a week on the roof.
He said: “One of my best ones was Walton Prison in Liverpool. I was up there a week you know.
“It was '85, it was summertime and I can remember the song I was singing...the number one Rock n' Roll geezer in America had a song out called Born In The USA. And I was singing it on the roof.
“All the Scousers were shouting out of their cells: “Shut up!”
“And I'd go: “Come on, you Spurs!” I got them all at it for a f**ing week.
“I took the roof off completely, you know. The Scousers were sending me up bottles of pop, Mars Bars, I even had, believe it or not, a little transistor radio up there."
Chilling threats
Bronson also chillingly recalls when he threatened to throw prison guards off the roof if they came too close.
He said: "They sent the riot mob up there, obviously with shields and all that. I walked over to them and basically said: 'The first one that comes near me I will grab you and we're jumping off together.'
"It's five landings. It was the old Victorian jail and they never come f***ing near me.
“They knew it, I meant it. The first one that comes near me is coming off with me, I'll grab you and we're going off together. That put them right off.
"I smashed the centre glass in and took me trousers and pants off and had a s*** through the hole in the roof and by the time it hit the floor and splatted the floor it over about 10 of them."
Guards call Bronson's mum
Bronson also revealed how his parents used to be called in when he did rooftop protests, causing millions of pounds of damage to prison roofs, in order to talk him down.
During his prison roof stunt in 1985, his mum was called down in to talk him down.
He said: "They brought my mum down. She talked to me through the roof.
“'Come on son, you've been up there long enough'.
"I said 'Mum!'
"She said: 'Never mind that, come down and have a cup of tea'.
"I came down and had a cup of tea. As soon as she went I had the hiding of my f***ing life.”
Alleged brutality
He also claimed he was dragged from his bed naked in the night at another prison.
He said: "Early hours of the morning my door opened. I heard the key go in the door, very quietly.
"And the next minute I was dragged out of bed naked, dragged out onto the landing, there were about 10 screws and a couple of dog handlers and they pointed up to a pipe in the ceiling.
“There was a noose hanging there. And this is exactly what they said: 'If you attack any of our officers that's where you're going to end up son”.
“And they slung me back in the cell. The next morning when they opened my door, did you know what I done? I threw a pot of s*** over all of them.
The reason I done it was I knew I'd be nicked. On the nicking, I told the governor exactly what happened that night.
“I said the only reason I done that is because they threatened to hang me, kill me and by s***ing them up, I knew I've got to see you.
“I'm telling you now if anything happens to me in this f***ing jail the responsibility is on you."
Scoring a hat trick in Doc Martens
Another extraordinary story that Bronson told was when he scored a hat trick during a prison football match while at Full Sutton Prison in the late 1980s.
The match was between London and Liverpudlian criminals – and Bronson was asked to make up numbers.
Playing for London was Eddie Richardson, one of the most prominent London criminals of the Sixties, Vic Dark, one of the most notorious criminals in the UK who has spent 21 years behind bars.
Bronson said: “All I had on was my Doc Martens.
“The game started. I scored three goals. I was told later, the only reason I scored the goals was because no one had the ***hole to tackle me.
“If I say so myself, they were cracking goals.
“I don't know how true it is, but an old screw in Full Sutton said: 'Do you know something, we've still got that game on video'."
He said even today, trainee prison officers are shown footage of his riots and admits he did once strip naked and smeared himself in Lurpak butter to make himself more slippery and harder to control.
He said: “When the screws go for their training they always show videos of me when I've been kicking off.
“Honestly! When I come out of my cell full of butter and I'm jumping on them and whatever I'm doing. I'm not like I was years ago.”
