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Intrigue
From BBC Radio 4
True Crime
Shadow World
by BBC Radio 4
Today: #169 in True Crime, United Kingdom on our combined chart.
Today: #102 in True Crime, New Zealand on our combined chart.
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Ranking history · United States
No ranking history for this show in United States over the last 14 days.
Latest episodes
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Breakin' the Cycle: 6. The Final Act
September 2, 2026 · 30 minTragedy sends D into shock, confusion, and grief. In the maelstrom of emotion, he decides to fulfill a lucrative drug deal, but is immediately arrested. In prison, he struggles with guilt, despair, the consequences of his criminal past…
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Breakin' the Cycle: 5. One Shot
August 26, 2026 · 28 minAs filming wraps, Lewis struggles to finish the first edit of Breakin’ the Cycle as he questions the morality of its violent protagonist. Colin and D head towards a make-or-break meeting that reveals the final steps needed to complete…
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Breakin' the Cycle: 4. A New Direction
August 19, 2026 · 28 minWith Colin now firmly in the director’s chair, Breakin’ the Cycle is transformed. Drawing directly from their lived experience, Colin unlocks startlingly authentic performances from the cast, turning what once looked like a cliched…
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Breakin' the Cycle: 3. The Right Kind of Violence
August 12, 2026 · 29 minProduction on Breakin’ the Cycle is falling apart - actors are injured, the crew is out of its depth, and Colin and D realise their director can’t capture the reality they lived. As D faces court and confronts the police corruption that…
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Breakin' the Cycle: 2. A Hood Story
August 5, 2026 · 29 minAs Colin and D begin turning their prison-written script into a real production, they recruit former pop stars and emerging actors, building a cast captivated by the promise of an authentic Black British crime story. Their film starts to…
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Breakin' the Cycle: 1. The Script
July 29, 2026 · 29 minWhen aspiring movie editor Lewis Albrow lands an unusual interview with Colin Browne and his right-hand man D, he believes he’s finally found his break into the film industry - but instead he’s pulled into a very different world. In…
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Thief at the British Museum: 6. Lone Wolf or Scapegoat?
May 27, 2024 · 19 minAs news of the thefts breaks around the world, the boss of the British Museum turns on Ittai. Now he has to fight to clear his name. And what of the thief? The museum shares details about how they think the thief covered their tracks…
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Thief at the British Museum: 5. Secret Missions
May 27, 2024 · 18 minThe inside story of how ancient treasures were stolen from one of the world’s most renowned institutions. And how one man believes he caught a thief. Omnibus edition part one of two. Presenter: Katie Razzall Producers: Darin Graham, Ben…
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Thief at the British Museum: 4. Seeds of Doubt
May 27, 2024 · 15 minIttai is convinced he’s found his thief, but not everyone is so sure. “I mean, to me, it just sounds like a setup. It sounds like he’s being framed”, one former museum insider tells us. Peter Higgs is a well respected curator, highly…
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Thief at the British Museum: 3. Lightbulb Moment
May 27, 2024 · 15 minFor Ittai, the clues finally fall into place. Has he identified the thief? Ittai Gradel long suspected someone was selling ancient gems that once belonged to the British Museum. But he had no idea when they were stolen or by whom. Now a…
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Thief at the British Museum: 2. White Paper Dots
May 27, 2024 · 17 minA mysterious seller appears with a seemingly endless supply of ancient, precious gems at bargain prices. Collector and dealer Ittai Gradel snaps them up. But then a strange series of events starts to unfold. From his home in rural Denmark…
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Thief at the British Museum: 1. The Man with the Cardboard Box
May 27, 2024 · 15 minPeople have called Dr Ittai Gradel a kind of Sherlock Holmes, if Holmes were Danish and obsessed with gems. He’s an antiquities dealer with an eye for stolen goods who will help unlock the mystery at the heart of this story. When Katie…
About the show
Shadow World - Breakin' the Cycle is the story of two feared London gangsters, Colin and D, who, in the early 2000s decide to try and escape the cycle of crime by making a movie based on their own lives as gang leaders and drug dealers. But the lines between fact and fiction quickly begin to blur, when they take a star-studded cast and a largely white, middle-class film crew into their world, in an attempt to make the UK's first authentic hood film. Accidental stabbings, drug dealing on set, and even a real-life shootout. Amongst the chaos, they're faced with the realities of leaving gang life behind, and the constant temptations of their old life threatening to drag them back in. Breakin' the Cycle is a series about friendship, guns, drugs, money and the sacrifices required when leaving one life behind in pursuit of another.
What will it take for Colin and D to leave behind a world of guns, drugs, and gangs, and reinvent themselves as film-makers?
Gripping stories from the Shadows - BBC investigations from across the UK.