“Downtown Abbey Meets Snatch” Writer Matthew Read Describes ‘The Gentlemen’

Who says there’s no honor among thieves, con artists, and drug dealers? Certainly not Guy Ritchie who created a television series called The Gentlemen based on his 2019 film of the same name. When Ritchie approached executive producer and writer Matthew Read (Peaky Blinders), he became excited by the prospect of working with such a “visionary writer.”

Then the big conversations about the great British obsession with class and status began. The Gentlemen explores a range of social classes ranging from aristocrats, gangsters, and workers.

“As we started talking about it, there was an image of this large, stately home on top of a weed factory, which just felt like Downton Abbey Meets Snatch,” quips Read. That image paved the way for a very stylized black comedy television series about family and criminals; oftentimes criminal families.

Read was able to utilize his extensive experience of long form TV to Ritchie’s unique vision of a world in which criminals and aristocrats collide with funny, compelling, and dramatic outcomes. His primary job was to expand The Gentleman from a two-hour film into an eight-part series with more over-the-top characters and more time to spend with them. No matter how madcap, the elevated world of the show must always be populated with grounded characters with real problems and real feelings. Ritchie describes it as, “Reality with a seven percent twist.”

The main goal of the show was clashing aristocrats with working class gangsters as much as possible.  The irony lies in who’s doing the thieving. “Aren’t the aristocracy the original gangsters?” postulates Ritchie. Much of British society was built on the wealthy building their fortunes on the backs of the workers. Aren’t they really taking back what was once theirs, with interest?

 

The Zoo And The Jungle

 

The opening quote above refers to the rules of the zoo and the jungle.

Brothers Eddie (Theo James) and Freddy Horniman (Daniel Ings) were raised in the zoo where everything was handed to them without a worry until they were forced into the jungle following their father’s (Duke Of Halstead played by Edward Fox) death.

The jungle is the harsh real world where you have to fight for everything to survive. These represent the contrasting worlds the Hornimans are moving from and to which drives the narrative of the series.

 

Freddy Horniman (Daniel Ings) Photo courtesy of Netflix

Eddie embraces his new world with slightly awkward poise and aplomb, while Freddy falls apart as a bouncing buffoon mired in debts. This is evidenced in his outlandish yet humiliating performance in a chicken suit (cockerel couture) to get his debt forgiven. Freddy has always failed to live up to his father’s expectations leading to his catastrophic life choices with scant propensity to accept blame. He’s extreme, impulsive and reckless with little ability to see past high-risk short-term gains.

“The conceit of the show, was always really interesting. The idea of an old vestige of British empire, the crumbling pieces of it, meets the new money crime,” adds Theo James. “The mix of those two worlds was always fascinating to me. And then beyond that, is this idea of this kind of strange family.”

“The idea of family mixed with the heightened comedy, but with a dark edge, is what Guy Ritchie brings. It’s comedic, but he never pushes it too far. Beneath it is a simmering layer of black ink potential, which was really always interesting to me” continues James.

Guy Ritchie played fast and loose onset. If the cast and crew were lucky, they’d film what was previously on the page. He’s been described as a “jazz director” moving with the rhythm and flow of a scene if it doesn’t agree with what’s currently on the page. Sometimes, the scripts of entire episodes would change forty eight hours before they were shot. He’d take late stage ideas and find a way to incorporate them into the scripts. He also left room for improvisation.

Old Money Meets New Money

The concept of old versus new money is also examined in The Gentlemen. It was considered once impolite to flaunt one’s wealth in the old aristocracy, except on special occasions, or to one-up another aristocrat. Barrel-aged whiskey is kept in cellars and rarely discussed, unless you want to take a sip. In the brave new world of new money, more bling is better. If ya got it, flaunt it.

The story begins when Eddie Horniman, an active army captain, rapidly returns from service to be by his dying father’s side. After inheriting the sizeable familial estate and defying the established “progenitor” law of all the inheritance going to the “heir” not the “spare,” he’s faced with dealing with his livid no-good brother Freddy and his mounting unpaid gambling debts because that’s what families do for each other.

Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario) Photo courtesy of Netflix

Freddy flabbergasted by his not being the heir to their father’s estate. The decision is incomprehensible. “I love that this guy is that self-involved and has such a warped perspective of himself and his status within his family and within the world. It’s dark and troubling and deeply concerning as well,” states Ings.

Actor Vinnie Jones who plays groundskeeper Geoff Seacombe (the eyes and ears of the estate) on the show explains his attraction to working on The Gentlemen. “It was the investigation of aristocracy, criminality, and the family you’re running from, the family you’re running to, and the family that you find yourself in that you don’t want to be in.”

Arguably, Eddie is the nucleus of the show. After becoming the heir to the Horniman estate, he discovers there’s a weed growing, processing, and distribution operation underground. He’d sooner shut down that operation, but Freddy is in a lot of debt to gangsters. Moreover, the Glass family is renting the space to pay for the upkeep of the Halstead estate and don’t want the long-standing arrangement with the now-deceased Duke to change.

Susie Glass (Kaya Scodelario) is the pro-tempore operations manager while her father’s in jail. She understands the necessary symbiosis between the aristocrat and gangster ecosystem.

Eddie soon discovers his penchant for being a gangster and the finer things in life.

Beneath Eddie’s seemingly calculating veneer, he really is finding his feet in the world of gangsters. And Susie Glass notices. His confidence and flair evolve throughout the series. He’s not playing the victim of circumstances. Furthermore, it’s unclear if he’ll step back from life as a gangster. Selling weed is one thing, but killing people is another. After all, he’s done it in the army.

Susie is stone-faced, a testament to her tough upbringing. She brings an unflappable strength and reason within the prism of vulnerability. She also exudes a cool, no-fuss attitude to being the matriarch of the operation without the ostentatious trappings of stepping into wealth and power. She communicates via short, piercing, to-the-point sentences and makes consequential decisions quickly. She’s deeply perceptive and often understands people better than they understand themselves, especially Eddie’s beguilement of the gangster world he’s gradually embracing.

As their budding relationship blossoms, both see the value of family loyalty in each other and further collaboration.

by Staff Writer

From our in-house editorial team.