A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster. Gangs provide a level of organization and resources that support much larger and more complex criminal transactions than an individual criminal could achieve. Gangsters have been active for many years in countries around the world. Gangsters are the subject of many novels, films, television series, and video games.
A Very Peculiar Practice is a surreal black-comedy drama set in the health centre of a British university, produced by the BBC, which ran for two series in 1986 and 1988. The two series were followed by a 90-minute made-for-television film, A Very Polish Practice (1992), following some of the characters to a new setting in Poland.
BBC Birmingham is one of the oldest regional arms of the BBC, located in Birmingham. It was the first region outside London to start broadcasting both the corporation's radio and television transmissions, the latter from the Sutton Coldfield television transmitter.
Pebble Mill Studios was the BBC's television studio complex located in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom, which served as the headquarters for BBC Birmingham from 1971 until 2004. The nine-acre site was opened by Princess Anne on 10 June 1971, and in addition to the studios contained two canteens, a post office, gardens, a seven-storey office block, and an outside broadcasting (OB) base.
Shanghai Triad is a 1995 Chinese crime-drama film, directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li. The script is written by Bi Feiyu based on Li Xiao's 1994 novel Rules of a Clan (门规). The film is set in the criminal underworld of 1930s Shanghai, Republic of China and spans seven days. Shanghai Triad's Chinese title reads "Row, row, row to Grandma Bridge", refers to a well known traditional Chinese lullaby.
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration. A handful of these plays, including Rumpole of the Bailey, subsequently became television series in their own right.
Frank Vincent Gattuso Jr. was an American actor and musician. Known for often portraying violent mobsters and criminals, he was a frequent collaborator of filmmaker Martin Scorsese, appearing as Salvy in Raging Bull (1980), Billy Batts in Goodfellas (1990), and Frank Marino in Casino (1995). On television, he played Phil Leotardo on the fifth and sixth seasons of the HBO crime drama The Sopranos (2004–2007). Vincent also voiced Salvatore Leone in the Grand Theft Auto video game series from 2001 to 2005.
The United Bamboo Gang, also known as the Bamboo Union, is the largest of Taiwan's three main criminal Triads. They are reported to have roughly 20,000 members. The membership consists largely of waishengren and has had historic ties to the Kuomintang; they are said to be motivated as much by political ideology as by profit. They are known to simply call themselves "businessmen", but in reality, are also involved in organized killings and drug trafficking. The gang gained global notoriety when it became directly involved in politics in the early 1980s.
Philip Martin was an English television screenwriter. He created the BBC television drama series Gangsters in the 1970s and later wrote two television serials for Doctor Who during Colin Baker's tenure as the Sixth Doctor in the 1980s.
Wang Lap Tat, better known by his stage name Lo Lieh, was an Indonesian-born Hong Kong martial artist and film actor. Lo was perhaps best known as Chao Chih-Hao in the 1972 martial arts film King Boxer, Priest Pai Mei in Executioners from Shaolin and Clan of the White Lotus, Miyamoto in the 1977 film Fist of Fury II, and General Tien Ta in the 1978 film The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.
Greenslade were an English progressive rock band, formed in the autumn of 1972 by keyboard player Dave Greenslade and bassist Tony Reeves, with keyboardist Dave Lawson and drummer Andrew McCulloch.
David John Greenslade is an English composer and keyboard player. He has played with Colosseum from the beginning in 1968 until the farewell concert in 2015 and also from 1973 in his own band, Greenslade, and others including If and Chris Farlowe's Thunderbirds.
Triads, Yardies and Onion Bhajees is a 2003 British crime film directed by Sarjit Bains, telling the story of a hitman working in London. The film stars real-life ex-gangster and underworld don Dave Courtney. Brainchild of Manish Patel, who plays the role of Singh, the story's protagonist, Triads, Yardies and Onion Bhajees was showcased in a BBC Two documentary on the making of the film.
David Ralph Martin was an English television and film writer. He was born in Handsworth, Birmingham, England, and attended Handsworth Grammar School.
The Kuroshakai trilogy, also known as the Black Society trilogy, is a series of films directed by Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike involving Chinese triads and Japanese yakuza.
The city of Birmingham, England is home to an evolving media industry, including news and magazine publishers, radio and television networks, film production and specialist educational media training. The city's first newspaper was published in 1732.
Time and Tide is the fourth studio album of the British progressive rock band Greenslade, released in 1975 on Warner Bros. Records. The artwork for the album cover is by Patrick Woodroffe. The album was released in the US on the Mercury Records label.
Cactus Choir is the first solo album by British keyboardist Dave Greenslade, released in 1976 soon after the disbandment of his own eponymous band, Greenslade. His Greenslade bandmate Tony Reeves also plays on half of the album's tracks. The artwork for the cover is by Roger Dean.
Second City Firsts is a British drama anthology series of single plays, broadcast by the BBC, all lasting thirty minutes. Recorded at BBC Pebble Mill in Birmingham, or sometimes filmed on location, the series was broadcast between 1973 and 1978.
David C. Lawson is an English keyboardist and contemporary composer who in the 1970s was a member of UK progressive rock band Greenslade.
