Shadow World Podcast

Shadow World - Breakin' the Cycle is the story of two feared London gangsters, Colin and D, who, in the early 2000s decide to try and escape the cycle of crime by making a movie based on their own lives as gang leaders and drug dealers. But the lines between fact and fiction quickly begin to blur, when they take a star-studded cast and a largely white, middle-class film crew into their world, in an attempt to make the UK's first authentic hood film. Accidental stabbings, drug dealing on set, and even a real-life shootout. Amongst the chaos, they're faced with the realities of leaving gang life behind, and the constant temptations of their old life threatening to drag them back in. Breakin' the Cycle is a series about friendship, guns, drugs, money and the sacrifices required when leaving one life behind in pursuit of another.

What will it take for Colin and D to leave behind a world of guns, drugs, and gangs, and reinvent themselves as film-makers?

Gripping stories from the Shadows - BBC investigations from across the UK.