The time is present day. The scene is a boxing-match dinner at a deluxe London hotel. At the head of the top table sits Gangster. Master of all he surveys. Top Johnny. King of London's gangland. Prince of the heap. The place Gangster always planned to be.

Life couldn't be sweeter. Until Gangster learns that Freddie Mays is being released from prison. Freddie Mays, his old boss and mentor, his old rival and tormentor, is coming out after doing 30 years for murder.

Tut tut. Freddie should have stayed where he was. Jail's the safest place for him. Because just hearing Freddie Mays' name, even after all these years, stirs up emotions in Gangster he doesn't know how to cope with, and probably never did ...

Flash back, to London 1968. From Gangster's point of view, we watch this epic story unfold. At this time, Freddie Mays is King and he enjoys all the trappings that being royalty brings. He's known as 'the Butcher of Mayfair', because he killed a bent cop and got away with it.

All Freddie's men - that's Tommy, Mad John, Fat Charlie, Roland, Billy, Eddie - look up to the boss. So does Gangster, the new boy on the scene. When Freddie sees that Gangster can handle himself well, that he has no fear, he puts Gangster on the payroll. And then he makes him his right-hand man. Which couldn't be better for Gangster, who admires Freddie and everything he possesses. Especially everything he possesses.
There's so much of it to admire. Like Freddie's flat, fitted out as expensive as hell. The Italian leather chairs, the onyx and gold everywhere. There's even a wall mural featuring horses, one of Freddie's greatest loves.
There's Freddie's cars, his blue Aston Martin and his red E-type Jag. And his clothes - the hand-made suits from Jermyn Street, the shirts from Italy, the silk socks, ruby cufflinks, white-gold watch...even the tiepin Freddie Mays wears is exquisite. It all speaks wealth and taste. In Gangster's own words he feels "arseholed on the smell of success'.

In service to Freddie, Gangster will wreak revenge, torture and even kill. When the boss's nightclub is petrol-bombed 'accidentally' by a rival firm led by Lennie Taylor, Gangster takes care of the careless person who made all that mess.

Freddie Mays and Gangster. It's a relationship made in heaven. To use Gangster's own words again, it's 'Moet and fucking Chandon all the fucking way ...'

As a team, they're invincible. Until something comes between them, in the shape of a beautiful girl called Karen. As Freddie's attention turns more and more to Karen, Gangster feels shut out, he feels everything change, become spoiled. Slowly, surely, all hell breaks loose.

Then Gangster and Roland uncover a plot by Lennie Taylor's men to kill Freddie Mays. Roland wants to inform the boss but Gangster now wants to keep the news a secret. So he must dispose of Roland. It's a special technique Gangster will apply again and again later, when disposing of Lennie Taylor and his top man, Maxie King.

Someone must pay for the disposal by doing time, and the person sent down is Freddie Mays. But before he goes to prison, a blood-curdling battle of wills takes place between him and his ambitious young apprentice. A battle that reveals a chilling portrait of cunning, deceit, obsession and violence. How admiration turns to envy, and envy to betrayal. Gangster must have what Freddie has. Not just his lifestyle - but his entire life. He won't stop until he's got the lot. And then ...?

Paul McGuigan was a successful stills photographer before moving into films. He has made many documentaries for Channel 4, including PLAYING NINTENDO WITH GOD, about children with Aids, and films for commercials and MTV. McGuigan won the Best Newcomer Award at the 1998 Royal Television Society for THE GRANTON STAR CAUSE, the first part of THE ACID HOUSE, a trilogy of short films he directed and which were adapted from the book of the same name by Irvine Welsh. The film also received the Best Film award at the New York Underground Film Festival in 1999. GANGSTER NO 1 is McGuigan's first full-length feature.