London's underworld loses its most powerful boss at the very start of Gangs of London, a British crime drama from 2020 whose episodes run close to an hour each.
What is Gangs of London about?
Finn Wallace ran the biggest criminal organisation in the city, and his authority kept a crowd of rival outfits in an uneasy balance. Then he is assassinated. The gap he leaves is dangerous from the first day: every gang that worked under the old arrangement now has to decide whether to stay loyal, wait it out, or reach for more. His son Sean Wallace steps forward to take charge. Sean is grieving, volatile and impulsive, and he makes the search for the people behind his father's death the first order of business, ahead of trade and ahead of diplomacy. From there the series tracks what that choice costs, as the fragile peace between the capital's criminal groups starts to crack and long-standing partners weigh up whether the heir can hold what the father built.
About the cast
Joe Cole and Sope Dirisu head the credited cast, followed by Michelle Fairley, Lucian Msamati, Asif Raza Mir, Colm Meaney, Mark Lewis Jones and Adrian Bower. It is a large ensemble, which suits a story about several organisations with competing interests rather than a single hero. Direction is credited to Corin Hardy and Xavier Gens.
Context & significance
Two questions drive Gangs of London, and they pull against each other. One is a mystery: who wanted Finn Wallace dead, and why now? The other is a succession story: can a son who inherits power by blood keep it by judgement? Sean's temper keeps the two tangled, because each move he makes to answer the first question weakens his hand on the second. The setting matters as well. This is a present-day city, not a period piece, and the gangs are shown as an intricate web of separate groups sharing the same streets under a truce that only held while one man enforced it. The catalogue files the series simply as drama, though crime and family conflict are its real engine. It is a United Kingdom production and has been strongly reviewed by audiences. Given the subject, an assassination and the feud that follows, it is viewing for adults rather than for a family evening. Episodes last about 55 minutes, long enough for the story to move between several camps in a single sitting.
Watching Gangs of London on Ktime
Gangs of London is available on K-Time with a Persian dub and with Persian subtitles, so you can choose whichever suits you. This page is free to read; to play the episodes, log in to your K-Time account. The whole K-Time experience, menus and search included, is in Farsi and built for Iranians living abroad.