Dave Courtney: The True British Gangster

Shot by Red Skin Media, Directed by self-shooting camera op Owen A Smith GTC, DGGB

Also present: Steve Cholerton, second unit footage and Anthony James, line producer

A few weeks ago we reported on our CEO’s Owen A Smith GTC, DGGB attending Mr. Dave Courtney’s home in London where a short interview was shot to camera. Yesterday we returned with a larger crew to get more footage for the gangster’s episode of our Changing Britain series. As we drove up to Dave Courtney’s house, I was flanked on either side of the drive by eagles glaring down from the imposing gates and a sign which read ‘gangsta parking only. All others will get jacked’.




As I got out of the vehicle with a slight feeling of unease and uncertainty; after all, this is Dave Courtney, a living legend in the world of underground crime and one of Britain’s foremost biggest gangsters; so I had no idea what I was in for. I surveyed the front of the house, taking in the highly unusual art and decoration; and was struck by how it was familiar to a castle of Camelot with turrets and crowns everywhere, paintings on the walls of Courtney dressed in armour; surrounded by other knights of the British crime syndicate, and crests embroidered on every outside wall. If we thought the outside of the house was unusual, I was only just getting started.

We went through the side of his house down to another building in the garden. It was here where I was introduced to Dave Courtney, draped in an all-black suit with black cowboy shoes and wearing a cheeky, mischievous smile. He then showed us into the building we would be filming in which is where things really started to get bizarre. Whereas most settle for a bike garage or tool-shed in their garden, Mr. Courtney instead opted for a sex dungeon complete with a lounge bar with plush interior!

In his past, when he was considered one of the most famous gangsters in Britain; the media made Dave Courtney out to look like a thug and king of criminals. What I instead found was a larger than life, compassionate man who had values and morals rarely seen in criminals these days. A lot of our discussion with Dave in our second interview with him focused on the comparisons between criminals in the past and those of today with the main topic being Dave’s attitude to society and why he believes criminality is still so prevalent in modern life. Dave explained to us how honour amongst thieves is now dead thanks largely to the rapid increase of drug crime these days which has changed the game dramatically. In Mr.Courtney’s day, groups of gangsters would rob banks or a train as a team with them all looking out for each other. But he bemoans and denounces criminality these days as too focused on narcotics and due to the rapid advancement of technology, which now makes a criminals’ life very difficult.

When we went up for the third interview in his main house, I was shown around another unusual presentation of extravagance, with one item in particular lining the houses’ walls: weaponry. It seems Dave was obsessed, as you may expect with objects that could kill a man. He took the time to show me his arsenal of weaponry, and his house had far more still, though none of the guns were still active. Besides the weapons, there were photos of him hanging from every wall, and also surreal objects like monkeys in suits of armour, dozens of different hats and books lining every wall in one room.

 From looking around, it was clear to me that Dave was not a stupid man as his book collection revealed many biographies of famous people (particularly gangsters), books on topics ranging from philosophy to gardening and even classics such as Homer’s Odyssey; not exactly light reading. In his house, we interviewed Dave on a more personal level about his past and started to scratch the surface on a man who had a thousand stories to tell, each one more interesting and extraordinary than the last.

  This was a man who had lived life, lived it hard and fast; not stopping to think about whether the decisions he made were good or bad, and this has left him shot, stabbed, put in a coma, and hounded by the British police force; but in the end, it has also left him with one hell of a colourful life. The interviews we got yesterday were unprecedented; with Mark speaking about information that went deeper than things he has talked about in his five published books, and further than any director had gone before with him.




Written by Oliver Maule, Red Skin Media Content Editor

Shot by Red Skin Media, directed by self-shooting camera op Owen A Smith GTC, DGGB
Also present: Steve Cholerton, second unit footage, Anthony James, line producer
Camera team: Melissa Pilfold, Josh Levine

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