‘It isn’t glamorous. Far from it’: The story behind cult films spawned by notorious triple gangland murder
It became known as the Essex Boys murders, one of the UK’s most notorious gangland killings. On a snowy December morning in 1995, the bodies of three drug dealers were discovered inside a Range Rover parked up on an isolated, snow-covered farm track in the quiet village of Rettendon.
The car’s occupants, Patrick Tate, Tony Tucker and Craig Rolfe, had all been shot dead in a triple murder that quickly became headline news.
More than 25 years later, there have been numerous aggrandising dramatisations, true crime books and documentaries about the massacre, or inspired by the backstories of those who died or their associates. Many may argue more than is necessary, but the audience is there.
The real Bernard O’Mahoney (left), pictured with Jones on set, was a bouncer who knew Tony Tucker, one of the men killed in the triple murder
The biggest franchise fuelled by the events in Rettendon is Rise Of The Footsoldier, which started in 2007 and is now on film number five: Rise Of The Footsoldier Origins. This time round, the film loosely tells Tucker’s origin story, with ultimate hardman Vinnie Jones joining the cast to star as reformed bouncer-turned-author (and former star of Danny Dyer’s Deadliest Men) Bernard O’Mahoney, the man behind more than one of those books on the subject.
Drugs, violence, guns, hyper-cockney accents and more four-letter words than Adele and Dave Grohl’s Glastonbury sets combined, the films are typical blokey British gangster fare.
However, O’Mahoney, who says he has never previously watched further than the first film because of the way it glamourised the lifestyle, says the rose-tinted lens has been removed to some extent for the newest offering.
“I’ve always sort of been politely anti them,” he says. “In previous films – and I’m not just talking about Rise of the Footsoldier films, I’m talking about that sort of genre – the bad guys nearly always win, and their lifestyle is portrayed as very glamorous, with all these girls and cars. That’s portraying a success story; they’re usually killed in the end but they have a great life along the way.”
In reality, that period of his own life was “a horrible time where everyone was out for themselves”, O’Mahoney says, and the “drugs world is more like Trainspotting – seedy and dark and no one’s got any money”. But it’s usually “people who have never lived in that environment” producing and directing the films, depicting their idea of the lifestyle.
Origins, which has a new director, Nick Nevern, is different, he says. It “throws a darker cloud” over the story.
“The reason I really like what Nick has done with this film is… they do have a bit of a glamorous life at the beginning, but then the drugs kick in and it shows their rapid decline and [how] they abandon their morals, abandon each other, and loyalty goes out the window, and that, I think, hasn’t been shown in these films previously. And that is exactly what happened.”
Jones has joined the franchise for the first time to play O’Mahoney
O’Mahoney was on set for the filming of several scenes, but hasn’t seen the film in full yet. So while he’s got a point, there is still an element of sheen, and the audience is clearly supposed to root for the characters and their gruesome antics. Still, number five does show a darker side and will almost certainly be less “fun” than number four, Rise Of The Footsoldier: Marbella, which saw the gang on their jollies in Spain.
While the 61-year-old said no to helping with research for the film at first, he says Jones’ casting won him round. “I thought this is their chance of revenge, they’re going to get Barry out of EastEnders or something…” He laughs. “There are similarities between us in looks. But they come back and said Vinnie Jones. I thought, well, at my age, I’m not going to say no to that.”
Jones, O’Mahoney says, didn’t need much advice on how to play him. “How can I put this politely? I think he was a bit of a lad in his day so I think he knows how things work. I don’t think he needed to learn a lot, I think he’s fairly streetwise himself.”
Craig Fairbrass, who has played Patrick Tate throughout the franchise, had moved into more perhaps critically acclaimed territory with recent films Muscle and Villain, and the upcoming Ire, when he got the call about returning for number five. He is refreshingly honest about the Footsoldier films – “they’re not the nicest, they’re very violent, but fans love them” – and about his role.
Fairbrass says fans sometimes think he is like his character in the films
“I’ve never kidded myself as an actor. I’m from London, I’m a certain size and physicality. It’s hard enough to get a job as an actor doing anything and I’ve always said there’s one thing worse than being typecast, that’s not cast.” He originally jumped at the chance to appear in the first film, he says, because he read the script and the “Pat Tate character jumped off the page – a big, horrible, powerful guy who takes liberties”.
But why are people so fascinated by characters like that, and the stories surrounding these murders in particular? Fairbrass says he has asked himself the question many times over the years of playing Tate. “This is not America, it’s England, so for three people to be gunned down at close range, murdered, in Essex in the middle of nowhere, there was a fascination with it straight away, this sort of mystery of who was it, who did this, how did it happen?
“I remember someone saying to me early on, ‘if they ever made a film, you’d make a perfect Pat Tate’. Then, like, 10 years later, I’m in the middle of a forest, soaking wet, drinking brandy, it’s freezing and snowing for real, and we’re doing the murder scene.”
Some fans of the films believe he must be like his character, Fairbrass says, and he has to tell them the reality is “very different”. You’re more likely to see the actor walking his little malshi dog than throwing punches.
“I just think there’s a massive, huge fascination from everybody with anything to do with murder and crime, especially when it’s on your own doorstep,” he says. “And because [the triple murder] was so horrific and you don’t get that every day… at the end of the day, they were gangsters, they weren’t the nicest of people.”
Jones has joined the franchise for the first time to play O’Mahoney
O’Mahoney can vouch for this, himself included at the time. The film portrays him as the level-headed one, who could see when things were turning ugly.
If there’s one thing he wants viewers to know, he says, it’s “don’t do this at home” and that selling drugs “absolutely destroys families”. He worries gang violence is “getting worse and worse”, particularly in London, with “kids killing other kids, you see in the papers, and that all comes from the glamourisation of it all, and it’s not good”.
He’s not proud of his past and says he’s written the books he has to try and show the grim realities, rather than glamourise it.
“I’m 61 now and when I look back at the things we were involved in… there’s a lot of people in Essex who get up and look in the mirror every day and think of me for all the wrong reasons. People have been, you know, scarred or injured.
“Looking back, the things we did and were involved with, it’s embarrassing. You know, how could you even think of doing [those things] to somebody? Most of it was gratuitous. And it got horrible.
“I’m certainly not proud of it, definitely not. Which is why I like what Nick’s done with this film. He’s put that side in, you know, it isn’t glamorous. Far from it.”
Rise Of The Footsoldier Origins is out in cinemas from 3 September
Actress Olivia Hussey, best known for playing Juliet in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1968 production of Romeo and Juliet, has died aged 73.
She died peacefully at her home in California, surrounded by her loved ones on Friday, according to a post shared on her official Instagram account.
The message, posted with a sunset photo of Hussey in her youth, paid tribute to “a remarkable person whose warmth, wisdom, and pure kindness touched the lives of all who knew her”.
It went on: “Olivia lived a life full of passion, love, and dedication to the arts, spirituality, and kindness towards animals”.
Calling her a “truly special soul”, her family said while her “immense loss” was grieved, they would also “celebrate Olivia’s enduring impact on our lives and the industry”.
Born in Buenos Aires in 1951 to an Argentinian father and English mother, Hussey returned to London aged seven with her mother and studied at the Italia Conti Academy drama school.
Spotted by Italian director Zeffirelli in a stage show of The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie opposite Vanessa Redgrave, Hussey’s performance as Juliet aged just 15 made her a star and won her a Golden Globe.
Sixteen-year-old actor Leonard Whiting played her Romeo, with the pair going on to sue Paramount Pictures in 2022 for sexual abuse due to the Oscar-nominated movie’s nude scene.
(L-R) Franco Zeffirelli, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting in 1968. Pic: AP/Eustache Cardenas
The case was dismissed by a judge the following year.
Hussey would work with Zeffirelli again, playing the Virgin Mary in the 1977 TV miniseries Jesus Of Nazareth.
Appearances in horrors including Black Christmas and Psycho prequel Psycho IV: The Beginning established Hussey as a scream queen over the years.
Other notable appearances included Hercule Poirot movie Death On The Nile and Mother Teresa biography Madre Teresa.
Read more:
Andrew Garfield on baking cookies and his mum’s perfume
Disabled musicians demand greater inclusivity
Hussey was reunited with Whiting in the 2015 British film Social Suicide, which was loosely based on Shakespeare‘s Romeo and Juliet.
Her daughter, actress India Eisley, played her on-screen daughter in the movie.
It was Hussey’s final screen role, according to IMDB.
Hussey leaves behind three children, Alex, Max, and India, her husband of 35 years David Glen Eisley, and grandson, Greyson.
Andrew Garfield says he bakes cookies every year in memory of his late mother.
The double Oscar nominee‘s mother Lynn Garfield, from Essex, died in 2019 from pancreatic cancer.
In a conversation about his new film We Live In Time, he told Sky News about the special ways he likes to remember her.
“My mum had the most incredible chocolate chip cookie recipe that I will do every year on the anniversary of her birth and on the anniversary of her death.
Pic: StudioCanal
“So, I will bake them, and we will all eat them, but I’ll leave a few out for her somewhere, you know, like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Santa Claus at Christmas or something.”
The English-American actor says he looks to keep the connection to his mother alive and notes that he has some of her keepsakes in his own home.
“I have her perfume in my house that my mum used to wear when I was a kid. I have it, like, in a very special place. I’ll just like [smell it], when I need it.
“It’s like in the missing and the longing, you actually get closer to the person. It’s a weird thing. As we reach out in grief, we actually feel much closer to the person so it’s this weird conundrum”.
Pic: StudioCanal
‘Leaving a legacy behind’
Garfield stars alongside Florence Pugh in the romance film We Live In Time, which follows an up-and-coming chef and a Weetabix salesman through a decade of their love story.
Pugh says she loves playing “really strong-willed women” and says playing a woman dealing with ovarian cancer allowed her to look at the idea of creating a legacy.
“She’s constantly juggling whether she does something for herself, does something for her daughter, does something for her family and ultimately, she’s allowed to do all of those things.
“I do believe that she is trying to leave that kind of legacy behind so that her daughter is proud of her.
“Just because you are a parent and you’re a mum does not mean that your wills and wants also completely vanish and disappear and you can’t have or want them too”.
Pic: StudioCanal
‘A level of detail and care’
We Live In Time is directed by Brooklyn filmmaker John Crowley.
Having previously worked with Garfield on Boy A, the Irish director says seeing Garfield and Pugh on screen together is magic.
“All that life experience is present in his performance,” he says.
“I wouldn’t say he’s vastly different. I think the level of detail and care that he puts in the work is every bit as much as it was back then, there’s just more there now”.
We Live In Time is in cinemas on Wednesday 1 January.
Elizabeth J. Birch has been a musician for a decade, has won several awards, and loves her job. However, she continues to feel like an outsider in a competitive and precarious industry.
As a wheelchair user, she commonly experiences accessibility barriers at venues, but there’s a more pressing issue – tokenism.
Birch tells Sky News: “While it’s not explicitly stated that it’s tokenistic, it feels tokenistic because [organisations] need a certain amount of disabled people on their board.
“For example, I was once called a poster girl for inclusion.”
When asked how the experience made her feel, she pauses and reflects: “Perhaps it didn’t make me feel like an individual or it made me feel less than human because I was narrowed down to one aspect of myself.
“It’s not about trying to look inclusive, it’s about trying to be inclusive.”
A recent report by Help Musicians and the Musicians’ Union found 94% of those who have experienced discrimination based on their disability said it impacted their ability to work or advance their career progression.
Nyrobi Beckett-Messam, one half of the sister duo ALT BLK ERA, was diagnosed with multiple chronic conditions in 2021.
Out of the fear of discrimination, she wasn’t open about her hidden disability until only a few months ago.
“I didn’t feel comfortable sharing that side of me because society doesn’t accept it,” she says.
And she doesn’t regret opening up.
“I think the biggest benefit of me disclosing my disability is seeing how it’s impacted others,” she says.
“It’s really empowering, I wake up feeling every morning like the effect I’m having on the community.”
Among other key findings, the Musicians’ Census identified the following areas of concern when it comes to financial security, fair pay, and discrimination in the workplace:
• On average there is a £4,400 pay gap between disabled and non-disabled musicians
• The gap widens a further £1,700 for musicians with mental health conditions and/or neurodivergent profiles
• 27% of disabled musicians said they had experienced racism, compared with 7% of non-disabled musicians
• 73% of disabled respondents said they aren’t in receipt of any state benefits, tax credits, or support
Grace Meadows, head of engagement at Help Musicians and Music Minds Matter, said: “What this report really starkly highlights is just how much more work the industry needs to do to support disabled musicians but also to support anybody who may have a disability to speak up without fear of discrimination or disadvantage.
“And with benefits, really what we are needing to see is a change in what those systems look like so people can get the support they need when they need it.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
A government spokesperson told Sky News: “We are bringing forward proposals to reform health and disability benefits in spring as part of a proper plan to genuinely support disabled people.
“We will work closely with disabled people and their organisations, whose views will be at the heart of these plans.”
Both Birch and Beckett-Messam believe in the social model of disability which recognises that people are disabled by barriers in society, not by their impairment or difference.
For now, they are determined to stay in the industry, but that could change if it stays the same.
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