The Walk-In (TV series)

Last updated

The Walk-In
GenreDrama
Written by Jeff Pope
Directed by Paul Andrew Williams
Starring Stephen Graham
Andrew Ellis
Dean-Charles Chapman
Andrew Havill
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes5
Production
ProducerJo Johnson
Running time45–50 minutes
Production company ITV Studios
Original release
Network ITV
Release3 October (2022-10-03) 
31 October 2022 (2022-10-31)

The Walk-In is a five-part 2022 British true crime television series dramatising the infiltration of far-right terrorist group National Action, foiling a plot to murder an MP. It stars Stephen Graham.

Contents

Synopsis

The series is based on the true story of how Matthew Collins of activist group Hope not Hate infiltrated British neo-nazi terrorist group National Action, foiling a plot to assassinate Labour MP Rosie Cooper. [1] [2]

Jack Renshaw was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for his plan to kill Cooper.

Production

The series, made by ITV Studios, was written by Jeff Pope and directed by Paul Andrew Williams for ITV.

Cast

Release

The series is based on Matthew F. Collins' life. Author and activist Matthew Collins, Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival 2023.jpg
The series is based on Matthew F. Collins' life.

The Walk-In aired on ITV from 3 October 2022.

The documentary Nazi Hunters: The Real Walk-In was broadcast after the final episode. [3]

Critical reception

The Walk In was well received in the press with The Guardian , The Independent , and the Evening Standard all giving it four stars out of five. Lucy Mangan, writing in The Guardian, described it as “one of the best TV investments you can make”. [4] [5] [6]

Cooper was critical of the marketing of the show, saying that she felt that she had been used as a "marketing tool" by Hope Not Hate and ITV. [7]

Related Research Articles

<i>State of Play</i> (TV series) 2003 British drama series by Paul Abbott

State of Play is a British television drama series, written by Paul Abbott and directed by David Yates, that was first broadcast on BBC One in 2003. The series tells the story of a newspaper's investigation into the death of a political researcher, and centres on the relationship between the leading journalist, Cal McCaffrey, and his old friend, Stephen Collins, who is a Member of Parliament and the murdered woman's employer. The series is primarily set in London and was produced in-house by the BBC in association with the independent production company Endor Productions. The series stars David Morrissey, John Simm, Kelly Macdonald, Polly Walker, Bill Nighy, and James McAvoy in the main roles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew Macfadyen</span> English actor (born 1974)

David Matthew Macfadyen is an English actor. Known for his performances on stage and screen, he gained prominence for his role as Mr. Darcy in Joe Wright's Pride & Prejudice (2005). He rose to international fame for his role as Tom Wambsgans in the HBO drama series Succession (2018–2023), for which he received two consecutive Primetime Emmy Awards, two BAFTA Television Award, and a Golden Globe Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HM Prison Belmarsh</span> Mens prison in Thamesmead, London, England

His Majesty's Prison Belmarsh is a Category A men's prison in Thamesmead, southeast London, England. The prison is used for high-profile cases, particularly those concerning national security. Within the grounds is the High Security Unit (HSU), which consists of 48 single cells. It is run by His Majesty's Prison Service. The prison has been called "Britain's Guantanamo Bay" due to the long-term detention of terrorism suspects without charge. Belmarsh is also notoriously known as "Hellmarsh" due to the fact that Belmarsh is considered the toughest prison in the UK and due to the high number of physical and authority abuses reported by both the prison's inmates and by human rights activists.

Mark Adrian Collett is a British neo-Nazi political activist. He was formerly chairman of the Young BNP, the youth division of the British National Party (BNP), and was director of publicity for the party.

Rosemary Elizabeth Cooper is a British health official and former politician. Cooper was a Liberal and later Liberal Democrat member of the Liverpool City Council from 1973 until 1999, when she joined the Labour Party. After leaving the council the following year, she was the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for West Lancashire from 2005 until her resignation in 2022, when she was named chair of the Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fourteen Words</span> White-supremacist slogans

Fourteen Words is a reference to two slogans originated by David Eden Lane, one of nine founding members of the defunct white supremacist terrorist organization, The Order, and are accompanied by Lane's "88 Precepts". The slogans have served as a rallying cry for militant white nationalists internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Graham</span> British actor

Stephen Joseph Graham is a British actor and producer. He began his career in 1990, with early notable roles including Tommy in Snatch (2000) and Shang in Gangs of New York (2002), before his breakout role as Andrew "Combo" Gascoigne in the film This Is England (2006).

Far-right politics in the United Kingdom is a recurring phenomenon in the United Kingdom since the early 20th century, with the formation of Nazi, fascist and antisemitic movements. One of the earliest examples of Fascism in the UK can be found as early as 1923 with the formation of British Fascisti by Rotha Lintorn-Orman. It went on to acquire more explicitly racial connotations, being dominated in the 1960s and 1970s by self-proclaimed white nationalist organisations that opposed non-white and Asian immigration. The idea stems from belief of white supremacy, the belief that white people are superior to all other races and should therefore dominate society. Examples of such groups in the UK are the National Front (NF), the British Movement (BM) and British National Party (BNP), or the British Union of Fascists (BUF). Since the 1980s, the term has mainly been used to describe those groups, such as the English Defence League, who express the wish to preserve what they perceive to be British culture, and those who campaign against the presence of non-indigenous ethnic minorities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Right-wing terrorism</span> Terrorism motivated by right-wing and far-right ideologies

Right-wing terrorism, hard right terrorism, extreme right terrorism or far-right terrorism is terrorism that is motivated by a variety of different right-wing and far-right ideologies. It can be motivated by Ultranationalism, neo-Nazism, anti-communism, neo-fascism, ecofascism, ethnonationalism, religious nationalism, anti-immigration, anti-semitism, anti-government sentiment, patriot movements, sovereign citizen beliefs, and occasionally, it can be motivated by opposition to abortion, and homophobia. Modern right-wing terrorism largely emerged in Western Europe in the 1970s, and after the Revolutions of 1989 and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, it emerged in Eastern Europe and Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HM Prison Wakefield</span> Prison in West Yorkshire, England

His Majesty's Prison Wakefield is a Category A men's prison in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. The prison has been nicknamed the "Monster Mansion" due to the large number of high-profile, high-risk sex offenders and murderers held there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hope not Hate</span> Advocacy group against racism and fascism, based in the United Kingdom

Hope not Hate is an advocacy group based in the United Kingdom which campaigns against racism and fascism. It has also mounted campaigns against Islamic extremism and antisemitism. It is self-described as a "non-partisan, non-sectarian organisation." The group was founded in 2004 by Nick Lowles, a former editor of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight. It is backed by various politicians and celebrities, and it has also been backed by several trade unions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Action (UK)</span> Banned British far-right neo-Nazi terrorist organisation

National Action was a British right-wing extremist and neo-Nazi terrorist organisation based in Warrington. Founded in 2013, the group is secretive, and has rules to prevent members from talking about it openly. It has been a proscribed organisation in the United Kingdom under the Terrorism Act 2000 since 16 December 2016, the first far-right group to be proscribed since the Second World War. In March 2017, an undercover investigation by ITV found that its members were still meeting in secret. It is believed that after its proscription, National Action organised itself in a similar way to the also-banned Salafi jihadist Al-Muhajiroun network.

<i>Siege</i> (Mason book) Book collecting the articles of American neo-Nazi James Mason

Siege is an anthology of essays first published as a single volume in 1992, written in 1980s by James Mason, a neo-Nazi and associate of the cult leader Charles Manson. After growing disillusioned with the mass movement approach of neo-Nazi movements, he began advocating for white revolution through terrorism. Referred to as the "Godfather of Fascist Terrorism", Mason has been proscribed as a "terrorist entity" in Canada.” Mason originally wrote the essays for the eponymous newsletter of the National Socialist Liberation Front, a militant splinter of the American Nazi Party.

Jack Andrew Renshaw is a British convicted child sex offender, terrorist and former spokesperson for the neo-Nazi organisation National Action. He was an economics and politics student at Manchester Metropolitan University and an organiser for the British National Party (BNP) youth wing, BNP Youth. On 12 June 2018, Renshaw pleaded guilty to preparing an act of terrorism, with the intention of killing the Labour MP Rosie Cooper, and to making a threat to murder a police officer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atomwaffen Division</span> International Neo-Nazi terrorist network

The Atomwaffen Division, also known as the National Socialist Resistance Front, is an international far-right extremist and neo-Nazi terrorist network. Formed in 2013 and based in the Southern United States, it has since expanded across the United States and it has also expanded into the United Kingdom, Argentina, Canada, Germany, the Baltic states, and other European countries. The group is described as a part of the alt-right by some journalists, but it rejects the label and it is considered extreme even within that movement. Atomwaffen has been described as "one of the most violent neo-Nazi movements in the 21st century". It is listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and it is also designated as a terrorist group by multiple governments, including the United Kingdom and Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christopher Paul Hasson</span> US Coast Guard officer and white nationalist (born c. 1969)

Christopher Paul Hasson is a former United States Coast Guard lieutenant and self-described white nationalist who pleaded guilty to federal gun and drug crimes in 2019, and the following year was sentenced to more than 13 years in prison. Although not charged with a terrorism offense, prosecutors called Hasson a "domestic terrorist" and accused him of plotting the targeted assassinations of high-profile American politicians, media figures, and others, as well as indiscriminate terror attacks against what Hasson called "leftists in general."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew F. Collins</span> English activist and author (born 1972)

Matthew Collins is an activist and author born in London in 1972. He was a member of several British fascist and neo-Nazi organizations, before starting to work as an informant for an anti-fascist magazine. He later became an activist for anti-fascist and anti-racist campaigns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Base (hate group)</span> American, neo-Nazi, paramilitary training organization

The Base is a neo-Nazi accelerationist paramilitary group and training network, formed in 2018 by Rinaldo Nazzaro. It is active in the United States, Canada, Australia, South Africa, and Europe, and designated as a terrorist organization in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patriotic Alternative</span> British far-right hate group

Patriotic Alternative (PA) is a British far-right, fascist, neo-Nazi and white nationalist hate group which states that it has active branches nationwide. The Times described it in 2023 as "Britain's largest far-right white supremacist movement". Its stance has been variously described as Islamophobic, fascist and racist.

Far-right terrorism in Australia refers to far-right ideologically influenced terrorism on Australian soil. Far-right extremist groups have existed in Australia since the early 20th century, however the intensity of terrorist activities have oscillated until the present time. A surge of neo-Nazism based terrorism occurred in Australia during the 1960's and 70s, carried out primarily by members of the Ustaše organisation. However in the 21st century, a rise in jihadism, the White genocide conspiracy theory, and after effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have fuelled far-right terrorism in Australia. Both the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) are responsible for responding to far-right terrorist threats in Australia.

References

  1. Vickers-Green, Laura (17 October 2022). "The Walk-In Review: Stephen Graham True Crime Drama Is An Uncomfortable Must-Watch". Den of Geek . Retrieved 18 October 2022.
  2. Doherty, Réiltín (20 September 2022), "The Walk-In on ITV1 with Stephen Graham: start date, cast and plot of true-life drama", entertainmentdaily.co.uk, Entertainment Daily!
  3. "Nazi Hunters: The Real Walk-In Episode". Press Centre. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  4. "The Walk-In review – one of the best TV investments you can make (if you can bear it)". The Guardian . 3 October 2022. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  5. "The Walk-In is a disturbing, unflinching portrait of British neo-Nazism – review". The Independent. 3 October 2022. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  6. Jessop, Vicky (3 October 2022). "The Walk-In review: Gripping, necessary television". Evening Standard. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
  7. Jobling, Phoebe (2 November 2022). "MP hits out at ITV over new drama covering plot to kill her". Manchester Evening News . Retrieved 5 January 2023.