Television series

Gangs of London

Name: Gangs of London
Genre: Drama, Crime, Thriller
Released: 2020
Cast: Michelle Fairley, Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, Brian Vernel, Lucian Msamati, Pippa Bennett-Warner

Gangs of London plays out like an opera fought with machetes. After crime boss Finn Wallace is murdered, his volatile son and the Dumani family scramble to hold together an empire stitched from Albanian, Nigerian, Irish and Kurdish syndicates. Gareth Evans, of The Raid fame, choreographs the violence, so fights land like nothing else on television. For people who want their crime drama loud, brutal and gorgeously staged rather than quiet.

TVMaze rating

7.7

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Top Boy2011

Same city, same multicultural criminal ecosystem, but grounded in estate life rather than empire politics — the closest thing to Gangs of London's London with the operatic violence stripped out and the moral weight kept.

But It's slower and more intimate, with none of the martial-arts spectacle — character study, not choreography.

The Wire2002

The gold standard for showing how criminal organisations actually function — factions, hierarchies, the slow bureaucratic grind of power — giving Gangs of London's chaos a rigorous, patient ancestor.

But Nothing moves fast here; the pleasure is patience and dialogue, not the propulsive violence you just watched.

Peaky Blinders2013

Another British crime family navigating shifting alliances and inherited power, with the same appetite for stylised brutality, doomed loyalty and a patriarch's shadow hanging over everything.

But It leans further into swagger and period romance than the grim, contemporary realism of Gangs of London.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Succession2018

Same engine: a dying patriarch, an empire without a clear heir, everyone circling. Succession proves the structure works even when nobody's holding a gun.

The same premise stripped of blood: a patriarch's decline leaves heirs scrambling for control of an empire, alliances shifting hourly, nobody trustworthy. It's Gangs of London fought with lawyers and shareholder votes instead of knives.

But There's no violence, no action, and the stakes are corporate rather than criminal — a very different flavour of tension.

Sons of Anarchy2008

A criminal organisation held together by blood and violence, constantly renegotiating who's in charge — the same tribal power struggles, just on motorcycles instead of in boardrooms.

But Its later seasons sag under soap-opera plotting that Gangs of London never lets itself indulge in.

Boardwalk Empire2010

A meticulous look at an empire built on crime and the endless jockeying to control it, with the same sense that no alliance, however old, is ever safe.

But It's stately and slow-burning where Gangs of London is kinetic — patience is required, and rewarded eventually.

Narcos2015

International crime empires, power vacuums and the impossible calculus of loyalty — just swap London's streets for Colombia's cartels and Escobar's rise for Wallace's fall.

But The docu-drama narration style is a different rhythm, cooler and more removed than Gangs of London's you-are-there violence.

The Sopranos1999

The template for the modern crime saga — a criminal empire under constant psychological strain, its leader's authority always one bad decision away from collapse.

But It's therapy-session introspective where Gangs of London is knife-fight kinetic; very different pleasures entirely.

Snowfall2017

Watching an empire get built from nothing gives you the mirror image of watching one fall apart — same ambition, opposite direction, same eventual rot.

But It takes a couple of seasons to find its footing and never matches the show's fight choreography.

Line of Duty2012

Flip to the other side of the same world — corrupt cops circling the same criminal networks, with just as much betrayal and none of the machetes.

But It's procedural and dialogue-driven; if you came purely for spectacle, this will feel like a different show entirely.

The Long Good Friday1980

The blueprint for London gangland-under-threat storytelling — Finn Wallace's fall is basically Harold Shand's nightmare, decades and several more syndicates later.

London's original gangster-empire-under-siege film: an ageing crime boss senses his territory slipping just as he's trying to go legitimate, and spends one terrible day finding out who's moving against him.

But It's slower, staged mostly in rooms and cars, and its violence is a fraction of what Gangs of London delivers.

El Sicario, Room 1642010

Same subject — hired violence inside a criminal hierarchy — with the operatic staging removed. Watch it right after and the show's fight scenes look very different.

A masked former cartel hitman sits in a hotel room and describes, in flat unhurried detail, exactly how he tortured and killed for the organisation that employed him. No music, no choreography, just the truth the show turns into spectacle.

But There's no catharsis and no style — it's a document, deliberately stripped of everything that makes Gangs of London thrilling to watch.