The Gentlemen episode 1 recap contains spoilers... With hit movies such as Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels on his CV, Guy Ritchie has earned a reputation as one of Britain’s most celebrated film directors.
But he’s bringing his iconic style to the small screen for the first time in Netflix series, The Gentlemen, a crime caper telling the story of an aristocrat who finds himself at the head of a million-pound drug empire.
Inspired by Ritchie’s 2019 film of the same name, which starred Matthew McConaughey and Hugh Grant, this eight-part drama begins when Eddie Horniman (Theo James, The White Lotus) unexpectedly inherits his father’s estate as the Duke of Halstead. Here's how the first episode played out...
Edward Horniman is in Turkey working as a part of the UN’s border patrol, when a man arrives explaining that his father’s health is failing and he must return home to Halstead Manor, where he's welcomed home by his elder brother Freddy..
“Look after your brother, he won’t survive without you,” the elderly Duke tells Eddie prophetically, as he nears the end, before slipping back into nostalgic ramblings about an estate that’s been in the family for over 600 years. It’s not long before Eddie’s father passes away and at the funeral, he notices a strange woman watching proceedings.
Later that day, the 12th Duke of Halstead’s will is revealed and his family are shocked to hear that Eddie — and not Freddy — will inherit the estate and title. This breaks with centuries of tradition, in which the eldest son takes everything, and Freddy is absolutely outraged. "It’s primo-genital!" he shouts, throwing papers everywhere and storming out. "Take it up with God.. or take it up the arse for all I care!"
Sitting in the wine cellar later on, Freddy reveals to his brother the truth about his significant debts. He borrowed £4m off Tommy Dixon, a cocaine dealer from Liverpool, for an investment that went south. With interest, that debt now stands at £8m and if he doesn’t pay by the end of the week they’ll chop his dick off.
Without the inheritance he was expecting, Freddy has no way of paying. Eddie tells him the family are relatively cash-poor and that he’s a "coke-sniffing c**t", but he will try and help him nevertheless. After finding £2m lying around, he knows he needs another £6m and his ears prick up when his lawyer says a mysterious businessman has expressed interest in paying “well over the market value” for Halstead Manor.
'Serious people...'
Later that afternoon, Eddie meets the woman who was watching his father’s funeral. Her name is Susie Glass and she shows him her secret cannabis lab underneath the family’s farm, from which Eddie’s dad had been taking a cut of £5m per annum.
Eddie deduces this lab is part of a much-larger operation and advises that he might need to put the house on the market to pay his brother’s debts. “We’d prefer to keep things as they are,” says Susie. Eddie tells her that legally there’s nothing they can do about that and she agrees - although it’s clear they wouldn’t go quietly.
The new Duke then goes to meet Geoff Seacombe, Halstead Manor’s groundskeeper. He’s played by Vinnie Jones, because after all this is a Guy Ritchie project. It’s clear Geoff knows what’s going on beneath Eddie’s barn and explains that Susie and her associates are “serious people, by all accounts… They’re dangerous bastards”. With those words ringing in his ears, Eddie takes the house off the market and asks Susie for help clearing Freddy’s debt.
'Stanley Johnston.. with a T'
Susie visits Tommy Dixon and urges him to forget the interest on Freddy's debt and accept £4m in cash, which he agrees to on condition that Freddy apologises, admits he’s a cock and records a special video for him.
Meanwhile, Eddie receives a visit from ‘Mr Stephens’, who represents the mysterious businessman who’s desperate to buy Halstead Manor. He’s willing to pay Eddie £250,000 just to come and listen to his offer. (Good work if you can get it..)
The mystery man is wealthy American Stanley Johnston, who claims he wants to buy the estate because of its architectural merits, before putting forward his "obscene" offer. If it's unacceptable, he says he could potentially go even further than that. Eddie rejects his bid, but he does sell him the wine collection to raise a couple of million.
Unfortunately, while he was doing that Freddy took the £2m from the safe and put it on a man called ‘Joey Bang Bang’ in a secret fight between two champion boxers. ‘Sticky Pete’ — the chap who took Freddy’s first £4m — seems to be on the verge of lightening his wallet further in another scam. Eddie’s threats slide off Pete’s back, but the next day Susie has her boys pay him a visit to kick seven bells out of him and get the money back. "There’s a dog in the man that the man can’t control, so we had to control it for him," she says.
'Who's the chicken now?'
Later on, Freddy gets the lyrics to the song he has to sing for Tommy Dixon. He’s unhappy with the amount of times he must admit he’s a cock, while dancing like a chicken, but the part where the dance is filmed is what really irks the jilted aristocrat. “You’ve taken everything else from me, why not take what’s left of my dignity,” he says to his little brother.
When Tommy Dixon arrives he makes Freddy practice his moves repeatedly, bullying and humiliating him relentlessly, while his employee Jethro counts the money. “You don’t just pretend to be a chicken, you’ve got to actually be a chicken… I want you to transform.” After countless lines and endless rehearsals, Freddy is a broken man. He snaps, goes to retrieve a shotgun and blows Tommy’s head off!
