McVicar by Himself

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The Britain’s Public Enemy Number One man himself, John McVicar, adapts his own book about his days as a dangerous criminal, his jailbreaks and his rehabilitation. McVicar ***½ (1980, Roger Daltrey, Adam Faith, Cheryl Campbell, Billy Murray, Georgina Hale, Steven Berkoff, Ian Hendry) – Classic Movie Review 9955 The latter half of the film is set in London after McVicar has escaped from Durham. Here he re-establishes relationships with his wife and young son and he eventually decides to try to escape from his life of crime by trying to fund a new life in Canada.

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The riverside area near Framwellgate Bridge would have fitted this description in the 1960s. At this point, McVicar swam along the river, in the direction of the current, briefly encountering a rat sitting on an exposed pipe. The pipe and occasional rat can still be seen here today. Russell recalled being taught by his father to play chess at the age of five and said: “He would never allow me to win.” Russell himself also ended up behind bars, most notably for stealing a Picasso in 1997. Like his father he took a degree while in prison, specialising in environmentalism and, following his release, wrote a book on climate change. The two had not spoken for 25 years as his father was critical of him for following his footsteps. After jumping the prison wall, McVicar found himself in unfamiliar surroundings, but in his autobiography, McVicar by Himself, he gives a heart-racing description of the streets and features that he encountered during his night-time escape.After his release, McVicar wrote his autobiography, McVicar by Himself, and scripted the biographical film McVicar (1980), which starred The Who's lead singer Roger Daltrey in the title role and co-starred Adam Faith. Also after his release from prison, he studied for a postgraduate degree at the University of Leicester. Indeed, the most interesting thing about Billy Rags is the mystery around its possible links to McVicar’s own autobiography. According to Triplow, in 1971 McVicar managed to smuggle the manuscript for what would eventually be McVicar by Himself out of prison via his lawyer, it being forbidden for criminals to write memoirs for publication or profit at the time. It was transcribed and edited by Goronwy Rees, a publisher, writer and academic, who had also been a communist in the 1930s and, according to some sources, a Soviet spy. ‘The plan was that it would be published, presumably under a pseudonym and a portion of the advance provide an income for the woman with whom McVicar had been living prior to recapture,’ writes Triplow. ‘She was also the mother of his seven-year-old son, Russell. It would also be a means for McVicar, then entering a period of study and re-education, to prepare for life outside prison.’ Le Grand Chemin [The Grand Highway] **** (1987, Anémone, Richard Bohringer, Antoine Hubert, Vanessa Guedj, Christine Pascal, Pascale Roberts) – Classic Movie Review 12,701 31 Oct 2023 A specially-prepared wing, described as "a prison within a prison" was developed. It would become the famous E-Wing and was thought to be escape-proof.

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The film comes six years after McVicar’s non-fiction book McVicar by Himself was published. McVicar co-writes the screenplay with Tom Clegg.

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His book on Jill Dando, Dead on Time (2002), was reviewed in the Guardian by Bob Woffinden, who concluded that “he seems to regard most of humanity with varying levels of contempt, and writes movingly only of the death of his dog”. McVicar’s theory as to who carried out the murder “must be one of the most preposterous advanced in modern criminal history”, Woffinden suggested.

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In a decade which spawned the Kray Twins, the Great Train Robbery and Harry Roberts, the feared armed robber, John McVicar, would again propel the subject of crime and criminals into the news headlines in Britain. Eventually, however, McVicar is forced to fund his family's relocation plan by returning to crime. Soon the Metropolitan Police are hard on his heels and he is eventually recaptured when one of his colleagues in the crime world informs the police officer in charge of McVicar's recapture of his whereabouts. The film was directed by Tom Clegg, and was based on the non-fiction book McVicar by Himself, which McVicar wrote to describe several months of his experiences in prison. Bill Curbishley and Roy Baird acted as producers, and the film received a nomination in 1981 for Best Picture at MystFest, the International Mystery Film Festival of Cattolica. The book is really two separate texts bundled together: the first is McVicar's account of his daring escape, originally intended to be sold to the newspapers; the second is a more reflective piece in which McVicar recounts his life and tries to analyze both the source of his own criminal behaviour and why he chose to leave it behind.Rather than cross any bridges, the escapee swam across the ice-cold River Wear, before sleeping fitfully through the rest of the night on some derelict land. Read More Related Articles

The man who escaped Durham’s E-Wing | The Northern Echo The man who escaped Durham’s E-Wing | The Northern Echo

He was able to enter a ventilation shaft, crawl along it, enter the exercise yard, then cross the roof before lowering himself down the prison wall. In 2002, having been divorced when in prison by Sheila, he married Countess Valentina Artsrunik, 17 years his junior, at the Russian Orthodox church in Knightsbridge. Together they ran a small publishing company, Artnik, which had been launched at the Bulgarian embassy and which published Dead on Time. He mentions what he thought to be a bowling alley with crowds of youngsters (perhaps what was then the ice rink). Paradise *** (1991, Melanie Griffith, Don Johnson, Elijah Wood, Thora Birch) – Classic Movie Review 12,702 | Derek Winnert on Le Grand Chemin [The Grand Highway] **** (1987, Anémone, Richard Bohringer, Antoine Hubert, Vanessa Guedj, Christine Pascal, Pascale Roberts) – Classic Movie Review 12,701 The first part was the basis of the movie (and an inspiration for The Shawshank Redemption). It's a classic prison break story and every bit as entertaining as the Alcatraz escape.Escapes were seemingly not that significant an event. In fact, the night after Heslop's escape, there were escapes from Thorp Arch Prison, in Yorkshire, and at Wandsworth, which experienced a further escape on March 20. Daltrey’s plan was to make a film that would show that a life of crime is a waste. John McVicar: ‘Being a thief is a terrific life. But the trouble is they put you in jail for it.’