Oscar-winning producer Graham King has set his sights on the city that shaped him, mounting an eight-part crime drama simply titled London with long-time collaborator Ray Winstone attached to star and executive-produce. The project, now in early development at King’s GK Films, charts three turbulent decades of the capital’s criminal underworld from the fallout of the Great Train Robbery in the 1960s to the rave-era narcotics boom. According to sources familiar with the package, writers are expected to deliver first scripts this summer ahead of a marketplace pitch in the autumn.
King and Winstone last partnered on William Monahan’s feature London Boulevard in 2010, and they have spoken for years about returning to the territory. In a statement released through GK Films, Winstone said the series would “put flesh on the bones of stories I heard growing up in the East End.” The 68-year-old actor is coming off Netflix’s The Gentlemen, in which he plays mob patriarch Bobby Glass, and Disney+’s boxing saga A Thousand Blows.
The timing aligns with a surge of interest in British crime stories among global streamers. Research firm Ampere Analysis reports that Western Europe accounted for forty-three per cent of all crime and thriller commissions by Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+ and other majors last year, with the UK matching the United States for first-run series orders for the first time.
King, who steered Bohemian Rhapsody and has the Michael Jackson biopic Michael in production, will oversee London with Hayley King for GK Films. Casting beyond Winstone has not been announced, and financing partners remain under discussion, yet industry watchers expect strong interest given the team’s pedigree and the genre’s enduring pull with audiences.