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
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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.
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