‘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
Race Across The World contestant Sam Gardiner has died at the age of 24 in a car crash, his family has said.
In a statement, his mother Jo – who appeared on the 2019 series with him – and his father Andrew said: “We are devastated by the loss of our beloved son Sam in a terrible accident.
“Sam left us far too soon, and whilst words will never fully capture the light, joy and energy he brought into our lives, we hold on to the memories that made him so special.
“Sam was adored by his family. As a son, brother and nephew, he was loyal, funny and fiercely protective.”
They added that taking part in Race Across The World “opened his eyes to the wonder of adventure and travel”.
Pic: Greater Manchester Police
The statement continued: “He was willing to go wherever the trail might lead and he touched everyone he met on the road.
“Sam brought warmth, laughter and a smattering of chaos wherever he went. He leaves behind a huge hole in our hearts.
“He found great happiness working as a landscape gardener on the west coast of Scotland. He leaves behind a huge hole in our hearts. We will miss him endlessly, but we’ll also remember him with smiles, tall tales, and a depth of love that will never fade.”
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said the car accident happened on the A34 in Gatley, near Cheadle on Monday night. He died from his injuries on Thursday, they said.
“Emergency services attended the scene after a vehicle was reported to have left the carriageway and rolled before landing on its side,” a spokesperson said.
The 24-year-old was the only person in his car and no other vehicles were involved, they added.
A spokesperson for the makers of Race Across The World said: “Everyone who worked with him and indeed everyone who watched Sam could see just how precious and transformative the trip was for both him and his mum, Jo.
“Sam embraced the seven-week trip with an energy, love and a determination that saw the pair enjoy adventures across Mexico to Argentina making audiences fall in love with them and their special bond as a result.
“We would like to extend our deepest condolences to his parents, Andrew and Jo; his brothers, William and Charlie; his step mum Justine; his family and friends.”
Entertainment
Mountainhead: Succession writer Jesse Armstrong’s new film takes aim at tech billionaires
Succession writer Jesse Armstrong says he hopes his new film about toxic tech billionaires can be a receptacle for anyone who is “feeling wonky about the world”.
Now making his film directorial debut with Mountainhead, starring Steve Carell and Jason Schwartzman, Armstrong has shifted his focus from cut-throat media moguls to a group of billionaire friends meeting up to compare bank balances against the backdrop of a rolling international crisis they appear to have stoked.
Speaking to Sky News about the project, he said: “For a little while I poured some of my anxieties and feelings into it… and I hope it can be a receptacle for other people if they’re feeling wonky about the world, maybe this can be somewhere they put some of their anxieties for a while.”
Cory Michael Smith (R) plays Venis in Mountainhead. Pic: Mountainhead/HBO
Jesse Armstrong with Ramy Youssef. Pic: Mountainhead/HBO
Few television writers achieve widespread recognition beyond their work, but Armstrong – the man behind Succession, one of the most critically acclaimed TV shows of the past decade – has become a household name and is today one of the world’s hottest properties in high-end drama.
“If there was more self-reflection and self-knowledge, there probably wouldn’t be such amenable targets for comedy and satire,” he admits.
Long before he gifted viewers with the likes of manipulative Logan Roy and sycophantically ambitious Tom Wambsgans, back in the beginning, there was selfish slacker Jez and the perennially insecure Mark on his breakthrough hit Peep Show.
“I love comedy, you know, it’s my way in,” he explains. “I think I like it because… the mixture that you get of tragedy and absurdity strikes me as a sort of a true portrayal of the world… and I just like jokes, you know, that’s probably the basic reason.”
After putting his pen down on the finale of Succession, walking away with 19 Emmys and nine Golden Globes, attention was always going to be drawn to what Armstrong did next.
“I had a couple of other things that I thought I would write first and this kind of snuck up on me as an area of interest,” Armstrong says.
“After I’d listened to a bunch of tech podcasts and Ted talks, I sort of needed somewhere to put the tone of voice that was increasingly in my head.”
Tapping into the unease surrounding big tech, he wrote, shot and edited Mountainhead in less than six months.
Jesse Armstrong says the film’s theme ‘snuck up on me as an area of interest’
Capturing the audience mood
Explaining why he worked so fast, he said he “wanted to be in the same sort of mood as my audience, if possible”.
While he insists there aren’t “any direct map-ons” to the billionaire tech moguls, which frequently make headlines in real life, he joked he’s “happy… to play a game of ‘where did I steal what from who?'” with viewers.
“You know… Elon Musk… I think at least people would see some Mark Zuckerberg and, I don’t know, some Sam Altman, there is a bunch of those people in all the [film’s] different characters… and we’ve stolen liberally from the world in terms of the stories we’ve given them.”
Steve Carell is tasked with delivering some of the film’s most memorable lines as the satire explores the dynamic between those holding the power and those pulling the strings.
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Lack of self-knowledge ‘good for comedy’
“People who lack a certain degree of self-knowledge are good for comedy….and if there was more self-reflection and self-knowledge, there probably wouldn’t be such amenable targets for comedy and satire.
“You know, living in a gated community and travelling by private jet certainly doesn’t help you to understand what life is like for most people.”
Armstrong’s gift for using humour to savagely dramatic ends is arguably what makes him one of the most sought-after writers working today.
Behind his ability to craft some of the sharpest and scathing dialogue on our screens, he views what he does as more than getting a laugh.
“I do believe in the sort of nobility of the idea, that this is a good way to portray the world because this is how it feels a lot of the time.”
Mountainhead will air on Sky and streaming service NOW on 1 June.
Entertainment
Taylor Swift buys back rights to all master recordings – but it’s bad news for Reputation fans
Taylor Swift has bought back all the rights to her master recordings – but has suggested she won’t be re-releasing her Reputation album.
“All the music I’ve ever made now belongs to me,” the star announced on her official website.
“I’ve been bursting tears of joy… ever since I found out this is really happening.”
The pop star had originally lost the rights to her first six albums in 2019 when her first record label, Big Machine, sold them to music executive Scooter Braun.
After she learned Braun had acquired her musical catalogue, she opened up about it in a lengthy Tumblr post, blaming him for being complicit in Kanye West’s “incessant, manipulative bullying” of her.
Swift said she was not given the opportunity to buy her work outright, and so, in a bid to diminish the value of the master tapes, she set about re-recording them.
Taylor Swift’s back catalogue was eventually sold on by Scooter Braun
She had re-released four “Taylor’s Version” albums to date. Just her self-titled debut album and Reputation remained.
Braun later sold his stake in her albums to Shamrock Holdings, a Los Angeles investment fund, in a deal reported to be worth £222 million.
It is not known how much Swift paid Shamrock to re-acquire the rights to her songs.
Swift said she was “forever grateful” to Shamrock for allowing her to buy the rights to her music back.
“This was a business deal to them, but I really felt like they saw it for what it was to me: My memories and my sweat and my handwriting and my decades of dreams,” Swift wrote on her website.
“I am endlessly thankful. My first tattoo might just be a huge shamrock in the middle of my forehead.”
What it means for Reputation fans
Just two albums remained to be re-released by Swift – her self-titled debut album and Reputation. The latter was a particularly strong source of speculation among fans, who would look for clues in her outfits during her record-breaking Era’s tour.
But this announcement could spell the end of that.
“Full transparency: I haven’t even re-recorded a quarter of it,” Swift said.
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Prince William spotted ‘dad dancing’ at Taylor Swift’s Wembley concert in 2024.
She said Reputation was “so specific” to a certain time in her life, that she kept hitting a block when she tried to re-record it. She also said she felt it was the first album she could not improve by re-recording it.
Debut has been re-recorded, with Swift saying she “loves how it sounds now”.
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But both albums could still “re-emerge when the time is right”, particularly the unreleased tracks.
“If it happens, it won’t be from a place of sadness and longing for what I wish I could have,” Swift said.
How Swift’s stance changed the music industry
In the music industry, the owner of a master controls all rights to their artists’ recordings. This is usually agreed in contracts with artists, and allows them to recoup the financial investment they make in stars, including funding production, marketing and promotion.
It also means they can distribute it to new streaming services or license the songs to be used in movies.
Pic: AP
Swift, as co-writer of her music, had always maintained publishing rights.
“I do want my music to live on. I do want it to be in movies. I do want it to be in commercials. But I only want that if I own it,” she told Billboard in 2019.
Swift said today she had been “heartened by the conversations this saga had reignited within my industry among artists and fans”.
“Every time a new artist tells me they negotiated to own their master recordings in their record contract because of this right, I’m reminded of how important it was for all of this to happen.”
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