Cox: Don't glamorise gangsters

Brian Cox doesn't believe gangsters should be glamorised on TV.

The 63-year-old actor plays crime kingpin Ozzy in Sky1's new mini series The Take, based on Martina Cole best-selling book, but views the character he plays as pathetic.

Brian said: "This world of gangsters and hard men is interesting territory, but I don't particularly like it as a culture, I find no glamour in these people."

He added: "I don't find guys like Ozzy admirable. I find them rather pathetic, actually.

"In Russia, they have a wonderful phrase about these sorts of men that goes, 'Little mice who blow off their own tale and become elephants' - which describes how they come to think they're bigger than they are.

"These criminal characters are dramatically interesting, but only in terms of their idiocy."

Brian also recalled a time his theatre company performed King Lear in notorious high-security psychiatric hospital-come-prison Broadmoor.

He said: "Ronnie Kray was there then, and Peter Sutcliffe was there too. I asked the warden, 'Will the Yorkshire Ripper be joining us this evening?'

"Life is like an extended fantasy world for these people. You think, 'Why don't you just get a job, do what everyone else does?'. It's like a family business for a lot of serious criminals, and they're locked into this mawkish sentimentality, and it's despicable."

:: The Take begins on Sky1 on Wednesday June 17.