During the swinging sixties in London, there was only one crime boss in Soho that mattered: the indomitable Harry Starks. With a reputation for savagery and generosity in equal measure, Starks ruled central London with a coercive fist and his favourite implement of torture: the red-hot poker. Based on Jake Arnott’s best selling novel, which combines fact with fiction, this is a retrospective tale of criminality in the 1960s through to the 1980s; told from the view of four characters as they encounter the menacing Starks. From the penniless Lord with a predilection for young boys to a fading film actress desperate to make ends meet, from an out-of-touch minor crook to a disillusioned criminologist – Starks leaves his indelible mark on them all. But Starks is no regular gangster – he’s an intelligent, complex Judy Garland loving man who yearns for something more than the rough and tumble of criminal life.
