Skip to main content
Advertise Buy the paper Contact us Shop Subscribe Support us
The Gentlemen: meet the real-life upper-crust crims
Guy Ritchie's latest Netflix series delves into the world of bent aristocrats, revealing the dark underbelly beneath their veneer of privilege. Here STEPHEN ARNELL takes a look at some of the real British toffs who engaged in criminal activity

THE GENTLEMEN continues the writer-director Guy Ritchie’s ongoing fawning obsession with the British upper classes, probably stemming from his privileged upbringing.

Ritchie was privately educated at posh Windlesham House and Stanbridge Earls School. His well-heeled parents John Vivian Ritchie and Amber Parkinson both made prestigious second marriages, respectively to Shireen Ritchie (nee Folkard), Baroness Ritchie of Brompton, and Sir Michael Leighton, 11th Baronet of Loton Park.

It has to be said that when he started out in the movie business, Ritchie obscured his upbringing and adopted the bovver-boy argot of what he imagined was modern-day Cockney to further his career.

The ‘other ’arf’

Lord Brocket

Charles James Spencer-Churchill
 
[[{"fid":"63753","view_mode":"inlinefull","fields":{"format":"inlinefull","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlinefull","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"height":"599","width":"440","class":"media-element file-inlinefull","data-delta":"1"}}]]
 

John Wilmot (1647-1680)
 
[[{"fid":"63754","view_mode":"inlinefull","fields":{"format":"inlinefull","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlinefull","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"height":"599","width":"497","class":"media-element file-inlinefull","data-delta":"1"}}]] 

Charles Tennant (1957-1996)

Thomas Cochrane (1775-1860)
 
[[{"fid":"63755","view_mode":"inlinefull","fields":{"format":"inlinefull","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"inlinefull","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"height":"599","width":"461","class":"media-element file-inlinefull","data-delta":"1"}}]]

Anthony Moynihan (1936-1990)

Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Features / 18 February 2025
18 February 2025
STEPHEN ARNELL sees parallels between the US tech billionaire and HG Wells’s literary creation
Features / 7 February 2025
7 February 2025
David Lynch’s classic 1980 film The Elephant Man has some cruel parallels with Britain in 2025, argues STEPHEN ARNELL
Features / 8 January 2025
8 January 2025
Between Musk’s bizarre British power grab and Trump’s overtly corporate agenda, modern robber barons face a growing backlash — and history shows how determined leaders can tame ultra-rich excess, writes STEPHEN ARNELL
Features / 21 December 2024
21 December 2024
There is no denying Thomas Cromwell's positive and progressive impact on English politics, argues STEPHEN ARNELL
Similar stories
Book Review / 22 July 2024
22 July 2024
STEVE ANDREW hails a moving and insightful collection of photographs and accounts that document the response of communities in Wales both as class and nation
Exhibition Review / 11 July 2024
11 July 2024
Co-curator TOM WHITE introduces a father-and-son exhibition of photography documenting the experience and political engagement of Chilean exiles
Features / 24 April 2024
24 April 2024
Inheriting the legacy of the long-running Smash EDO campaign, JOHN LILBURNE reports on the campaign set up to stop the notorious factory on the edge of Brighton that supplies the US, Britain and Israel with bomb components
Your free Morning Star / 5 March 2024
5 March 2024
Read your free paper and supplement below