Most meetings could just be an email. But in the heightened milieu of Sky’s bloodthirsty hit Gangs of London, face-to-face parleys have become as essential as the drama’s signature bouts of brutal hand-to-hand combat. Whenever anything dodgy happens that could jeopardise the capital’s lucrative illegal rackets, some high-level hood growls the magic words into their mobile: “Call a meeting of the gangs. Tonight.”
For the various factions, these executive sit-downs are an opportunity to look their shady associates in the eye and intuit who might be making a power grab. For viewers, it’s a useful way to keep tabs on all the larger-than-life stakeholders, from fearsome Irish mob widow Marian Wallace (Michelle Fairley) to snappily dressed fixer Ed Dumani (recent Conclave standout Lucian Msamati) and unblinking Albanian mafioso Luan (Orli Shuka). After two seasons of messy backstabbing – with no shortage of front stabbing, bludgeoning and dismemberment – the only thing you can safely assume about the unsmiling faces at these draughty warehouse meet-ups is that they know how to survive in a dog-eat-dog world.
That’s certainly the case with compromised hero Elliot Finch (Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù), the undercover detective whose original mission to bring down the gangs became a personal beef with wannabe kingpin Sean Wallace (Joe Cole). Having now fully embraced the mobster lifestyle, Elliot has a place at the top table – possibly just to spite his cherubic enemy, Sean, whose surprise resurrection last time still saw him end up behind bars. But as season three gets under way, Elliot is presented with a huge headache: a substantial shipment of cocaine distributed on his watch has been spiked with fentanyl, killing hundreds across London. It’s bad business, and even worse PR.
Part of Gangs of London’s overheated appeal is that cooler heads never prevail. So this act of sabotage triggers a lot of haphazard accusations and recriminations, exacerbated by a hooded martial arts expert who seems to know exactly how to disrupt Elliot’s business. Is someone on the inside leaking vital intel? Might the current chaos have some connection to a tragedy in Elliot’s past? The former cop embarks on a typically hands-on investigation where his interrogation techniques include the unorthodox use of a defibrillator and some nasty business with a vice.
New antagonists include Andrew Koji (returning to the UK after three seasons playing the lead in Bruce Lee-inspired US historical drama Warrior) and veteran scene-stealer Richard Dormer, who is clearly relishing his role as a malevolent Irish rabble-rouser wielding a wicked-looking shillelagh and a sneering rasp that sounds like a rusted petrol can being ripped in half.
Heat is also about to come down from London’s new mayor Simone Thearle (T’Nia Miller), whose anti-drug stance is somewhat undermined when we meet her surreptitiously snorting a line at work. The series of micro-expressions that flicker across Miller’s face when an aide informs her that a recent batch of coke has been lethally poisoned demonstrates that for all its well-earned reputation for gory ultraviolence, Gangs of London can occasionally be subtle.
Season three continues the tradition of bruising fistfights and exuberant shootouts, all executed at an impressive technical level and mischievously sprinkled with wince-inducing flourishes. But it also doubles down on the convoluted mythology of blood feuds and favours owed between power players. Between the jolts of carnage it can be hard to keep all the motivations straight across eight episodes, especially if your memories of what everyone was up to in the first season – which debuted in 2020 – are hazy.
So it is unlikely to win over anyone who has found its previous glamorisation of theatrical gangsters and extreme violence distasteful. Yet in full flight Gangs of London can still be nerve-shredding TV. Most of episode two is given over to a desperate manhunt across the city that ratchets up the tension to near-unbearable levels, with a brief cameo from Phil Daniels as a mouthy East End retiree who won’t be intimidated by swaggering heavies.
But the show’s new high-water mark for jaw-dropping use of improvised weaponry takes place in episode five, a flashback spotlight on Kurdish freedom fighter turned drug smuggler Lale (Narges Rashidi), who has variously been an ally to Sean and Elliot. She finds herself isolated and pursued by heavily armed henchmen in a deserted office block where the only sign of life is a smattering of desktop Christmas decorations.
From running jokes in Brooklyn Nine-Nine to a shoutout in recent conspiracy thriller Paradise, plenty of TV shows have doffed their hat to Die Hard, the motherlode of modern action movies. But none of them have done it quite like this. Lale’s desperate fightback is empowering and transgressive (and too good to spoil). No wonder the rest of the season can’t quite measure up.
• Gangs of London aired on Sky Atlantic and is on Now.
