'It's violent and it's tough': Ross Kemp goes inside the Mafia
In his brand-new show for Sky HISTORY, Ross Kemp speaks to former members of the Mafia to learn about Britain's long-standing relationship with the criminal underworld.
Image: Ross Kemp: Mafia and Britain
Ross Kemp is back on our screens with his brand-new show that investigates Britain’s unlikely connection with the Mafia. In Ross Kemp: Mafia and Britian, the award-winning actor and journalist goes on a global journey to follow a trail of illegal money and drugs as he learns about our country’s true relationship with the Mob.
Sky HISTORY spoke to Ross to learn more about the show, why he was so interested in doing it and some of the crazy stories he uncovered along the journey.
Throughout his career, Ross Kemp has met with some of the world’s most dangerous individuals and organisations in some of the world’s most dangerous places. However, he’s ‘always been fascinated’ by the Mafia, an interest he said was fuelled by watching films like The Godfather.
He continued on to say that he’s wanted to do some work on the Mafia for some time now, but it’s not been the easiest thing to pursue, for obvious reasons.
‘I’ve tried to make programmes about organised crime groups in the past,’ he explained, ‘But it’s incredibly difficult as it’s not in their interest to talk to the media. It’s not in their interest to talk to anybody.’
With Ross Kemp: Mafia and Britain though, he was able to get unprecedented access to some people who have been right at the heart of organised crime. Most of the people he speaks to are known as ‘pentiti’, those who have either repented their involvement with the Mafia or are now out after serving their time.
Image: Gennaro Panzuto spent time hiding at a Preston caravan park | Ross Kemp: Mafia and Britain
His journey starts on the bank of the River Thames where he learns about the death of Roberto Calvi, also known as ‘God’s Banker’. Calvi was found hanging underneath Blackfriars Bridge in 1982. While the death was officially ruled a suicide, Ross has quite a lot of scepticism.
‘When you look into it, you find out that Calvi was a member of the P2 which was an illegal Masonic Lodge in Rome that was also known as the Frati Neri [Italian for black friars], suggesting this had all the hallmarks of a symbolic killing.’
While the investigations take him all around the world, to places like New York City and Colombia, some of the more fascinating discoveries that Ross makes come a little closer to home. He met with Gennaro Panzuto, a known member of the Camorra crime organisation, who was hiding in a caravan park in Preston. During his time in the criminal underworld, Panzuto would drive down to Naples to carry out hits on rival Mafia groups before returning to his cover in Lancashire.
When Ross asked him if he remembered the faces of the countless people he killed, Panzuto simply answered, ‘No, but I still hear the sound of their bodies hitting the floor’.
Ross also found evidence of the Mafia operating in Woking, Surrey, which he believes was chosen as a location because ‘it’s the last place authorities would look’.
In fact, this all plays into the notion that people have turned a blind eye to criminal activity for numerous years, something that Ross believes they do because there’s a romantic connotation to what goes on. ‘But the reality is not romantic in the slightest,’ Ross stated, ‘It’s violent and it’s tough.’
However, he knows there is going to be a lot of interest in the show because people will always be fascinated by worlds that they are not a part of. Yes, criminal organisations are dangerous, deadly and full of, for the want of a better word, criminals, but for the average person who is not involved in that scene, there’s always going to be an allure for what goes on.
Ross knows that this kind of intrigue is just hardwired into us and can’t be stopped. ‘Anything we don’t know about we have an interest in,’ he suggested, ‘It’s just human nature.’
