0:00:02 > 0:00:05This programme contains some strong language.
0:00:05 > 0:00:07SIRENS WAIL
0:00:07 > 0:00:08BIRDSONG
0:00:10 > 0:00:11PIANO RECITAL
0:00:21 > 0:00:23MAN: London, England.
0:00:23 > 0:00:26The greatest city on Earth.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28It's a landing point for great people
0:00:28 > 0:00:30who want to make great things.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35Think you can fake it?
0:00:35 > 0:00:38This city would chew you up quicker than a dog toy
0:00:38 > 0:00:41in the jaws of a pissed-off pit-bull.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44That's what happened to the characters in this story.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49Professional villains, in the eyes of the law.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51According to the suits,
0:00:51 > 0:00:54this bunch of mugs were fraudsters of the highest order.
0:00:56 > 0:00:58But we got a saying in this metropolis.
0:00:58 > 0:01:00HE CHUCKLES
0:01:00 > 0:01:01Maybe I invented it.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06"If you wish on stars, you could end up behind bars."
0:01:12 > 0:01:14Now, a group of conmen have been sent to prison
0:01:14 > 0:01:16for trying to scam millions of pounds in tax credits
0:01:16 > 0:01:19by pretending to make a big-budget British movie.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22The five fraudsters said they had A-lister actors lined up
0:01:22 > 0:01:25to star in the movie, but when their plans were uncovered,
0:01:25 > 0:01:29they hastily went about making a low-budget film instead.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33This Brit flick didn't make the multiplexes,
0:01:33 > 0:01:35but the story behind it has got it all.
0:01:35 > 0:01:39A daring plot, big-money stakes, international criminals.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41It was made to try and cover up a fraud.
0:01:44 > 0:01:46Scene 52-1, take 1.
0:01:46 > 0:01:50- Louder, louder.- Louder again? All right. OK.
0:01:50 > 0:01:52- Scene 52-1... - Then you're going to...
0:01:52 > 0:01:54Can you clap it twice this time?
0:01:54 > 0:01:57So second clap, bam-bam. All right.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59Scene 52-1, take 1.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03- We have to do that again.- Cut, cut.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05Shall I start from the beginning?
0:02:05 > 0:02:07- Yeah, if you'd prefer, yes. - Yeah. Out.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11I'll let our main players introduce themselves, shall I?
0:02:11 > 0:02:13- Oh, yeah. Any time, yeah?- Mm-hm.- OK.
0:02:13 > 0:02:19Hi! My name is Aoife Madden and I would like to welcome you to our...
0:02:20 > 0:02:25Hi. My name is Aoife Madden and I would like to welcome you
0:02:25 > 0:02:31to our very first video diary for the making of A Landscape of Lies.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33My role is the producer.
0:02:35 > 0:02:41Hello. My name is Bashar Al-Issa, and I'm going to explain to you
0:02:41 > 0:02:48the aspect of how to logistically handle a deliverable of taking
0:02:48 > 0:02:51a script from concept into completion.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53Um...
0:02:54 > 0:02:55..and in a more specific sense,
0:02:55 > 0:02:59we're going to get involved into, um...
0:02:59 > 0:03:01The Landscape of Lies, the movie.
0:03:01 > 0:03:04So, um....getting down to it.
0:03:06 > 0:03:09- Um...I'll start again. - OK, don't worry.
0:03:09 > 0:03:11LAUGHTER
0:03:12 > 0:03:16- Does this work?- Yeah, of course. - And here are the stars of our movie.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19A couple of wannabe Harvey Weinsteins.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22Lured, like so many before them,
0:03:22 > 0:03:26to the glamour and the glitz of making movies.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30..scenes and then his family scenes are in this car...
0:03:33 > 0:03:36First up, Aoife Madden, Northern Irish.
0:03:36 > 0:03:38From a powerful family.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40- How you doing? - Her uncle, Conor Murphy,
0:03:40 > 0:03:43is a political mover and shaker for Sinn Fein.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47Aoife herself studied acting at drama school.
0:03:47 > 0:03:50And I will lie to you from day one.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56And use you and screw you and break your heart.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01Aoife got off to a flying start.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04A bit of Shakespeare here, even a couple of movies.
0:04:04 > 0:04:06But acting's a fickle game.
0:04:07 > 0:04:09The work dried up,
0:04:09 > 0:04:13so she decided to go back to college to retrain as a teacher.
0:04:15 > 0:04:18If Aoife's our Bonnie, Bashar is our Clyde.
0:04:19 > 0:04:22A property mogul with that casual minted look.
0:04:24 > 0:04:29Bashar Al-Issa came from a Middle-Eastern family worth millions.
0:04:29 > 0:04:30And he thought big.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37In 2005, he had a credit line worth £90 million,
0:04:37 > 0:04:40which he was using to develop property sites around the world.
0:04:43 > 0:04:45They had grand ambitions.
0:04:45 > 0:04:47He started off with one, which was Issa Quay, and then quickly
0:04:47 > 0:04:52he had other plans to build a number of schemes in the city.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55And they weren't just small schemes, they were skyscraper schemes.
0:04:55 > 0:04:57He was the darling of Manchester.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01Everyone wanted to do business with this kind of interesting
0:05:01 > 0:05:06Iraqi businessman who kind of had this idea that his apartments
0:05:06 > 0:05:08were going to be the best in Manchester, if not the UK.
0:05:08 > 0:05:15And he would attract investors from Dubai, from Abu Dhabi, from London.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18That's his market. That's what he was aiming at.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22The reality of when we saw show apartments at Issa Quay
0:05:22 > 0:05:24was very, very different.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28The toilets had come in from China and were tiny.
0:05:28 > 0:05:30Were really, really tiny.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32Perhaps designed for the Asian market,
0:05:32 > 0:05:34but certainly didn't suit the European market.
0:05:34 > 0:05:38Bashar Al-Issa is taking these architectural students
0:05:38 > 0:05:41on a tour of the historic Statler building.
0:05:41 > 0:05:43It's a building he knows well.
0:05:43 > 0:05:47Issa spent 5.5 million renovating the former hotel
0:05:47 > 0:05:50into a multiuse building since he bought it in August.
0:05:50 > 0:05:53We're making sure that every step we take is planned, designed
0:05:53 > 0:05:56and well-thought-of, so it can last years.
0:05:56 > 0:05:58To Issa, it's all about the details.
0:05:58 > 0:06:01From the emblems in the marble to creating a fourth wing.
0:06:01 > 0:06:04And he plans on spending big money to renovate.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07So, the overall cost would be approximate, er...
0:06:07 > 0:06:10by achieving the fourth wing, as well, about 130 million.
0:06:13 > 0:06:18Bashar's 130-million plans were about 130 million short.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23By 2008, his property empire was crumbling
0:06:23 > 0:06:26like an old digestive biscuit in a vice.
0:06:27 > 0:06:29The financial crisis hit.
0:06:29 > 0:06:33The bank pulled his credit and he was forced into bankruptcy.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35Work here basically stopped.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39The workers said, "We're not getting paid, we're out of here."
0:06:39 > 0:06:40Can't blame them for that.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43There were some legal proceedings that started
0:06:43 > 0:06:47over in State Supreme Court. That was in late 2008.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50Bashar was told by the judge to show up, he never did.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53The judge issued a contempt of court fine on him.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55I think it's like 250 a day,
0:06:55 > 0:06:59which I think the meter on that is still running, by the way. Huh!
0:07:01 > 0:07:05Bashar was just 31 and he'd already seen his first career
0:07:05 > 0:07:09flushed down one of his smaller-than-average toilets.
0:07:09 > 0:07:12So, he decided to get another business qualification
0:07:12 > 0:07:16and went back to his old stomping ground at East London Uni.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21He wasn't the type of guy to end up in middle management,
0:07:21 > 0:07:24tapping a keyboard in an open-plan office.
0:07:24 > 0:07:29No, sir. Bashar had another sky-high ambition -
0:07:29 > 0:07:31to become a film producer.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34To understand the man, he's never desperate.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37He's got no desperate need for anything.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40His only desire in life is to be successful.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43When one thing closes, he moves to something else.
0:07:43 > 0:07:48Property was no longer viable, let's look around for something else.
0:07:48 > 0:07:51And he always had an interest in film.
0:07:51 > 0:07:55Bashar's tutor at university was this guy, Tariq Hassan.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01And Tariq knew Aoife, who was training there to be a teacher.
0:08:01 > 0:08:03One of them wanted to act in the movies
0:08:03 > 0:08:05and the other wanted to make 'em.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07So he introduced 'em.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15Bashar soon took Aoife to one of London's smartest hotels,
0:08:15 > 0:08:17The Dorchester.
0:08:18 > 0:08:21Nice gaff, great bar nibbles.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30He asked Aoife to set up a production company
0:08:30 > 0:08:31and make films with him.
0:08:31 > 0:08:35Which was bold, seeing as Aoife knew very little about film production
0:08:35 > 0:08:37and still had a student loan.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40But he promised to teach her everything he knew.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44'Starting from the beginning, tasks and responsibilities.'
0:08:44 > 0:08:46Pre-production is basically planning
0:08:46 > 0:08:49all the steps you would do within production.
0:08:49 > 0:08:54'Production is the actual construction of the movie.'
0:08:54 > 0:08:57Um...so by the time you get to production,
0:08:57 > 0:09:01you need to be fully and utterly over pre-production.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04Of course, Bashar was bankrupt,
0:09:04 > 0:09:07so he couldn't set up a company himself.
0:09:07 > 0:09:09But that was a tiny fly in the ointment.
0:09:11 > 0:09:15Under Bashar's expert guidance, Aoife set up her own company.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Evolved Pictures.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20Don't it look snazzy?
0:09:20 > 0:09:24I am from Ireland and, um...
0:09:24 > 0:09:27it's a wonderful culture of storytelling
0:09:27 > 0:09:31and music-making and all of these different sort of arts and crafts.
0:09:31 > 0:09:37And I wanted to bring this through into a modern-day process,
0:09:37 > 0:09:40which is the art of filmmaking.
0:09:40 > 0:09:43And that's why I decided to embark upon a film.
0:09:45 > 0:09:50Aoife and Bashar started out the way any film producer would start out.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52By looking for the right script.
0:09:53 > 0:10:00My favourite films are Heat, Goodfellas, Taken.
0:10:00 > 0:10:05I really like a good crime, thriller, action-packed story.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09I saw an advert on a website called mandy.com.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13There was an advert for a production company looking for some scripts.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18Stuart Knight had just finished a course in screenwriting
0:10:18 > 0:10:23at an establishment of higher education called Preston College.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26He emailed Aoife his second-year student script for a film
0:10:26 > 0:10:28called a Landscape of Lives.
0:10:30 > 0:10:32And she loved it.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35A Landscape of Lives at the time was set in Los Angeles.
0:10:35 > 0:10:38Featured probably about six or seven different interlinking storylines,
0:10:38 > 0:10:40kind of like Magnolia or Crash.
0:10:40 > 0:10:44And a three-hour drama about these people's lives in Los Angeles.
0:10:44 > 0:10:46Even though I hadn't been there. I'd been to New York.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01It was a thriller, we were unravelling a murder
0:11:01 > 0:11:05and we would find out at the end why all these lives were linked
0:11:05 > 0:11:08and...how...
0:11:08 > 0:11:12..the linking of lives resulted in the murder and...
0:11:13 > 0:11:16Sorry.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20Next, they needed to hire people to help plan the production.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24They didn't have any money yet, but that didn't matter.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26London's full of pretty young things
0:11:26 > 0:11:29who dream of getting into the movies.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32We met at a popular cafe in the West End.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34Um...she sent me the script.
0:11:34 > 0:11:37I wasn't going to say, "I think it's a bit of a stupid script,"
0:11:37 > 0:11:40because she would've said, "Oh, well, don't work on it, then."
0:11:40 > 0:11:44And I wasn't in a position to be able to be that choosy
0:11:44 > 0:11:46about any film work that I was offered.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51Bashar suggested that maybe I help on the film and I was, like,
0:11:51 > 0:11:52"Yes, I'll do it!"
0:11:52 > 0:11:55There was no reason for him to do anything nice for me,
0:11:55 > 0:11:59giving me a job, um...something that I'd always wanted to do.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02And it was just really exciting.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05It was like walking along the street on cloud nine.
0:12:08 > 0:12:11Romance was also in the air.
0:12:11 > 0:12:16Enter stage left the model and dancer, Maeve Madden.
0:12:16 > 0:12:18Aoife's sister.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21Bashar quickly fell for Maeve and soon they were dating.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28Well, wouldn't be a film without a love story, would it?
0:12:28 > 0:12:32He seemed like the kind of person that would do anything for her.
0:12:32 > 0:12:35Um...and he did a lot for her.
0:12:35 > 0:12:39They were a loved-up couple when it was all going smoothly.
0:12:41 > 0:12:46The script was in the bag. Now, they needed to finance the production.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Bashar didn't have enough in his piggybank for that.
0:12:49 > 0:12:52Being bankrupt is terrible for your bank balance.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56But help was at hand.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58The British Government offers a nifty incentive
0:12:58 > 0:13:01to anyone making a film in the UK.
0:13:01 > 0:13:0525% of their budget back in cash on any dosh spent in this country.
0:13:07 > 0:13:11It's called the Film Tax Credit. You'd be a mug not to apply.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13Aoife began to fill out the forms.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16She'd be very chatty about how the UK Film Council
0:13:16 > 0:13:17were coming along with her.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19Applications, she'd be cross
0:13:19 > 0:13:22because she had to go through the whole process again.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25Um...you know, she'd just be chatty-chatty about everything.
0:13:25 > 0:13:32Financing the film industry is a tricky, difficult, um...task.
0:13:32 > 0:13:36However, it's a rewarding task, um...
0:13:36 > 0:13:42once you get the right idea, get the right script, push it
0:13:42 > 0:13:46and get a dedicated team behind it and make it a blockbuster.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50Government subsidies have always attracted sharp investors.
0:13:50 > 0:13:53But the Film Tax Credit is only meant to be
0:13:53 > 0:13:56a percentage of the total cost.
0:13:56 > 0:13:59Bashar and Aoife had to raise the real money for their film
0:13:59 > 0:14:02using the support of the British Government as an enticement.
0:14:02 > 0:14:06Bashar turned to his own family's multimillion-pound investment
0:14:06 > 0:14:08company in the Middle East.
0:14:08 > 0:14:11The oddly-named Canadian Primary Industries.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16Smelling the cash, Aoife and Bashar went abroad to sell.
0:14:17 > 0:14:19We pitched our project.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22When I said we pitched, we... We broke down the project,
0:14:22 > 0:14:24we gave presentations of the type of actors
0:14:24 > 0:14:27that we might be able to have in it.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30You have to present budgets, you have to present
0:14:30 > 0:14:34comparables of other movies that have been made on certain budgets.
0:14:34 > 0:14:37You have to present box-office reports.
0:14:37 > 0:14:40Lots of financial things that you have to present.
0:14:40 > 0:14:43And, obviously, there are many other things,
0:14:43 > 0:14:45but I won't bore you with them.
0:14:45 > 0:14:50And finally, we found a company, um...I found a company
0:14:50 > 0:14:53that was interested in investing in the project, so we struck a deal.
0:14:53 > 0:14:58She was fortunate to have a contact through myself
0:14:58 > 0:15:05that would be able to syndicate her loan
0:15:05 > 0:15:09and the finance needed to many investors around the world.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12They talked about crazy money coming from the Middle East.
0:15:12 > 0:15:16They talked about building a studio in Jordan.
0:15:16 > 0:15:19They talked about having 250 million to spend.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24This is the Landscape of Lives' PowerPoint presentation,
0:15:24 > 0:15:27full of A-list actors.
0:15:27 > 0:15:30I'm sure Michael Kane, with a K, would have been thrilled(!)
0:15:33 > 0:15:37With an untested team of producers, a student's script
0:15:37 > 0:15:41and a PowerPoint with more spelling errors than a dyslexic's homework,
0:15:41 > 0:15:45Bashar's family company thought about it
0:15:45 > 0:15:50and decided to offer Aoife a loan of £19.6 million.
0:15:52 > 0:15:56He knows a lot of finances, he has a degree in international economics.
0:15:56 > 0:16:00You base yourself somewhere and you work somewhere else
0:16:00 > 0:16:04and you can claim start-up expenses and whatever.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07He fully understood all those rules and regulations.
0:16:07 > 0:16:11The money was coming from a Middle-Eastern connection
0:16:11 > 0:16:14who was based in Panama.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20Here is where they mystery begins.
0:16:20 > 0:16:23You can look at what happened next in two ways.
0:16:23 > 0:16:25Theory A - behold!
0:16:25 > 0:16:29A bunch of wannabes so desperate to succeed that they bend the rules
0:16:29 > 0:16:31until they break 'em.
0:16:31 > 0:16:35Or Theory B - a gang of scammers who planned it all from day one.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41Aoife felt like she was dreaming.
0:16:41 > 0:16:44In a few months, she had gone from being an out-of-work actress
0:16:44 > 0:16:50to a film producer with a full script and a £20 million budget.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52But then she woke up from her dream
0:16:52 > 0:16:56and realised she had no bleeding idea how to make the thing.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59So she began to look for another company who'd do the job for her.
0:17:03 > 0:17:06I felt that I needed to have a team onboard with me
0:17:06 > 0:17:09that would help the project progress and move forward
0:17:09 > 0:17:12so that they could contract and negotiate
0:17:12 > 0:17:14and organise all of those things.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16Because it's a very creative, um...
0:17:16 > 0:17:20It's a very creative world and you want to be involved very creatively.
0:17:20 > 0:17:24And sometimes, we can get pulled away into the non-creative side.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27So those people that came on to help me
0:17:27 > 0:17:31were from a company called AB Productions.
0:17:31 > 0:17:37She was always quite cagey about AB. She mentioned them to me.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40I didn't really know who AB were,
0:17:40 > 0:17:43who the sort of people involved were.
0:17:43 > 0:17:49She said to me that she really saw my role as creative director,
0:17:49 > 0:17:51so she wanted me to take a step back.
0:17:51 > 0:17:53Here's one for those of you
0:17:53 > 0:17:56who take the less-charitable view of this lot.
0:17:56 > 0:18:00AB had even less experience in filmmaking than Aoife Madden.
0:18:00 > 0:18:03The company was run by two sorts who worked for Bashar
0:18:03 > 0:18:06when he was a property developer in Manchester.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09A construction manager, Osama Al Baghdady
0:18:09 > 0:18:11and an architect, Ian Sherwood.
0:18:11 > 0:18:14I remember quite distinctly Bashar saying to me,
0:18:14 > 0:18:18"I'm looking at this film project, would you be interested?"
0:18:18 > 0:18:22Now, I said I wasn't experienced enough in film
0:18:22 > 0:18:25to be able to contribute anything more than,
0:18:25 > 0:18:28"Yeah, OK, you can use my office address."
0:18:28 > 0:18:33Osama, I knew from the construction side, from Bashar's property group.
0:18:33 > 0:18:39And Osama can have that office address and Osama can work from it.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42Osama is the director of AB Productions,
0:18:42 > 0:18:45Osama is the contact between you and the people making the films.
0:18:48 > 0:18:52And now, they were a magnificent seven.
0:18:52 > 0:18:55Bashar Al-Issa, the lead producer,
0:18:55 > 0:18:57Aoife Madden, the creative producer,
0:18:57 > 0:19:00Sarah Clarke, the production manager,
0:19:00 > 0:19:03Tariq Hassan, the accountant,
0:19:03 > 0:19:05Osama Al Baghdady and Ian Sherwood,
0:19:05 > 0:19:07who were apparently going to organise the making of the film
0:19:07 > 0:19:10because it was too difficult for Aoife.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14And Maeve Madden was a model, or location scout,
0:19:14 > 0:19:17product-placement executive, or something.
0:19:17 > 0:19:21Together, they thought they could rewrite the rules of filmmaking
0:19:21 > 0:19:23on that little whiteboard there.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28- Hi.- I'm sorry. I've got someone for an audition here.- Ah, OK.
0:19:28 > 0:19:30- Shall we...?- Yeah. OK. Thank you.
0:19:30 > 0:19:33Bashar said that he felt he could run a film
0:19:33 > 0:19:36exactly like a building site.
0:19:36 > 0:19:39And therefore, he felt people with the same skill sets could do this
0:19:39 > 0:19:40if they could do that.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50And now comes the strangest episode in this story.
0:19:52 > 0:19:57The company that Aoife hired to make the film, AB Productions,
0:19:57 > 0:20:03sent her an invoice for £5.3 million for work they hadn't done yet.
0:20:03 > 0:20:06800,000 of that was VAT.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09The fat 20% tax Her Majesty's Government creams off
0:20:09 > 0:20:11mostly everything we buy.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15You can claim that back if you're a limited company,
0:20:15 > 0:20:18and that's what Aoife did on behalf of Evolved.
0:20:18 > 0:20:22But she never actually got around to paying AB's invoice itself.
0:20:25 > 0:20:31HMRC does have a duty to pay out VAT that we owe to people,
0:20:31 > 0:20:34or they say they owe to us on a VAT return.
0:20:34 > 0:20:39And particularly if it was a business that needed to,
0:20:39 > 0:20:42as we were told at that point, pay other expenses
0:20:42 > 0:20:44and carry on making this film.
0:20:46 > 0:20:51The following month, Aoife submitted more claims to the taxman.
0:20:51 > 0:20:55There was one for another £500,000 in VAT.
0:20:55 > 0:21:01Plus a claim for a Film Tax Credit to the tune of another £250,000.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04Things were looking fishier than a nun in a nightclub.
0:21:05 > 0:21:09Fishiest of all was the £19.6 million budget
0:21:09 > 0:21:11they'd scored in the first place.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15Even the biggest British movies cost half that.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19And British crime flicks are made for well under a million.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21Even ones by the genre's big daddies,
0:21:21 > 0:21:23like producer Jonathan Sothcott.
0:21:25 > 0:21:27He'd love 20 mil to play with.
0:21:27 > 0:21:31We are making these films for DVDs. You know, that's the core audience.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34Um...and what I call the geezer-movie audience
0:21:34 > 0:21:37still likes to buy a meat-and-potatoes product.
0:21:37 > 0:21:41They go to Asda and they buy one of these with their weekly shop.
0:21:43 > 0:21:47You know the Kray twins? He was just like them.
0:21:47 > 0:21:50He could've put a bloody spaceship in that.
0:21:51 > 0:21:55- That sounds like fun.- What we make are independent British movies.
0:21:55 > 0:21:58They have a certain appeal to a very wide audience.
0:21:58 > 0:22:00They still perform incredibly well on DVD.
0:22:00 > 0:22:03I don't think there's any shame in that.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05When I was a kid, growing up in the '80s, getting a video
0:22:05 > 0:22:08from the video shop was just as much of a treat as going to the cinema.
0:22:08 > 0:22:10You'll finish these guys and then...
0:22:11 > 0:22:13..you'll vanish.
0:22:13 > 0:22:16Avengers Assemble is a steak dinner and this is a McDonald's.
0:22:16 > 0:22:18Action!
0:22:18 > 0:22:22And 20 million gets you a fair few Happy Meals.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25First-time filmmakers having a budget of £19 million? Impossible.
0:22:25 > 0:22:27I don't know where that came from. That's just nonsense.
0:22:27 > 0:22:29I mean, that just has dodgy written all over it.
0:22:29 > 0:22:32But, of course, the problem is, to the layman in the street,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35or the pub or wherever they tap up their victims, when you say,
0:22:35 > 0:22:39"I'm making a £19 million movie," it sounds much more impressive than,
0:22:39 > 0:22:42"I'm making a film down the road for a bag of chips and some peanuts."
0:22:46 > 0:22:49That fact didn't escape Her Majesty's tax inspectors either.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53So they asked Aoife to show them what had been shot
0:22:53 > 0:22:56so far on the big-budget blockbuster,
0:22:56 > 0:22:58A Landscape of Lives.
0:23:00 > 0:23:05Aoife asked me to organise a test shoot of selected scenes
0:23:05 > 0:23:09from A Landscape of Lives, but there was no budget for the test shoot.
0:23:09 > 0:23:13I had to get all the equipment, the lights, the cameras
0:23:13 > 0:23:19and stuff completely free off the back of contacts that I had.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23And the DOP, who was a student that I brought in to shoot it,
0:23:23 > 0:23:26he had his own camera, so he brought that.
0:23:26 > 0:23:29Everybody else worked for a minimal fee.
0:23:29 > 0:23:32- Are you fucking crazy?! - Wait!- No, you wait!
0:23:32 > 0:23:35Have you any idea what he'll do to us if he finds out?
0:23:35 > 0:23:39I know how crazy it sounds, but trust us. We know what we're doing.
0:23:39 > 0:23:43Just imagine a group of students getting together
0:23:43 > 0:23:46and acting out some pretty disjointed,
0:23:46 > 0:23:50not particularly well-written pages of script
0:23:50 > 0:23:53with a borrowed kit, without all the lights and, you know,
0:23:53 > 0:23:56with none of the location that... you know,
0:23:56 > 0:23:59it was really shot in someone's flat in one room.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01I mean, it was just atrocious.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03- He said he'll come.- He'll be here.
0:24:03 > 0:24:05Yeah, well, he fucking better be!
0:24:08 > 0:24:12The test shoot was four men in a room, looking angry.
0:24:13 > 0:24:15And to us, fairly untrained,
0:24:15 > 0:24:17we did think it was slightly humorous that something
0:24:17 > 0:24:23that would feature Omar Sharif would start in such a humble way.
0:24:26 > 0:24:29HMRC put two and two together
0:24:29 > 0:24:34and found they didn't quite make four, they made minus 800,000.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37It's a lot of money. It's £800,000.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41I have to try to get that back. How are we going to do that?
0:24:41 > 0:24:46We're going to do that by arresting, by searching and prosecuting.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50For Aoife and the rest of the seven dwarves,
0:24:50 > 0:24:52whether this was a gigantic balls-up
0:24:52 > 0:24:57with tax papers filed before the Jordanian cash had come through,
0:24:57 > 0:24:59or a genuine shot at thieving,
0:24:59 > 0:25:01things were about to get pretty nasty.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15Yeah, April 11th was obviously quite a traumatic day.
0:25:16 > 0:25:20Being arrested at 7:30, walking out of my house to go to work,
0:25:20 > 0:25:24um...it's something I would hope never to have repeated.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31There was a buzz on my buzzer and I thought,
0:25:31 > 0:25:35"Oh, God, it will be the Jehovah's Witnesses, I won't answer it".
0:25:35 > 0:25:36Buzz-buzz-buzz!
0:25:36 > 0:25:40I thought, "Oh, I'd better answer it". And it was HMRC.
0:25:40 > 0:25:47He came in and explained that they were under investigation.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51I went completely cold and I was just, um...really shaking.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54I couldn't have probably looked more guilty if I'd tried.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58I just looked like your archetypal, you know, er...villain.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02Sarah Clarke, a drop in this bucket of buffoonery,
0:26:02 > 0:26:05handed over all her emails to HMRC
0:26:05 > 0:26:08and was soon eliminated from their investigation.
0:26:08 > 0:26:11But the other six were deep in it.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16I met up with Bashar and Aoife the day after they'd been arrested.
0:26:16 > 0:26:18And Bashar was sort of...
0:26:18 > 0:26:20I don't think he really understood what had happened.
0:26:20 > 0:26:24Aoife was in bits and pieces. She was crying. She was very upset.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28Because she couldn't understand what she'd done wrong.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34Seven producers of A Landscape of Lives have been arrested
0:26:34 > 0:26:37and then released on bail. Why?
0:26:37 > 0:26:41For claiming the tax on the movie they didn't, or couldn't make.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47Charges for VAT and Film Tax Credit fraud soon followed.
0:26:47 > 0:26:51All the producers for the Landscape of Lives could do now
0:26:51 > 0:26:53was wait for the trial.
0:26:53 > 0:26:54Or was it?
0:26:59 > 0:27:02Bashar and Aoife decided that they should finish the film,
0:27:02 > 0:27:05because the whole case against them
0:27:05 > 0:27:08appeared to be there was no film and this was a sham.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12Initially, when we were arrested, it was clearly put to us that this
0:27:12 > 0:27:16was a complete bogus situation and it was never intended to be a film.
0:27:16 > 0:27:19But I don't think that is the case.
0:27:19 > 0:27:22I'm sure there was always an intent to make a film.
0:27:22 > 0:27:27That's what he wanted to do. And he wanted to be Quentin Tarantino.
0:27:27 > 0:27:30NARRATOR CHUCKLES Quentin never got arrested.
0:27:33 > 0:27:36You heard right, by the way, our producers thought
0:27:36 > 0:27:39the best foot forward was to make the film regardless.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42But making a movie on bail would present new challenges.
0:27:44 > 0:27:49The investors Bashar claimed he had lined up had now pulled out.
0:27:49 > 0:27:53"Scared off by the investigations", so he said.
0:27:53 > 0:27:56That meant no £19.6 mil.
0:27:56 > 0:27:59And no cash meant Michael Caine and his ilk
0:27:59 > 0:28:02were completely out of the picture.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08But London has another kind of film industry.
0:28:08 > 0:28:10The world of low-budget filmmaking.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13A reservoir of undiscovered talent.
0:28:13 > 0:28:15HUBBUB
0:28:31 > 0:28:34We worked together on the doors for 10 years or so.
0:28:34 > 0:28:36Different clubs and then occasionally,
0:28:36 > 0:28:38- we'd join up at the same club. - I used to love it.
0:28:38 > 0:28:41I used to turn up, five minutes in it, first punter give me
0:28:41 > 0:28:44the dirty look, spank! "You ain't coming in. Next!"
0:28:44 > 0:28:47There were times you would razz to a club because it was kicking off.
0:28:47 > 0:28:50We'd be on a door and you'd get, "Oh, it's kicking off down the..."
0:28:50 > 0:28:53I don't know, "the Rose and Crown. It's kicking off". "Let's go!"
0:28:53 > 0:28:56He'd get in his car and he'd burn down there just to get in a ruck.
0:28:56 > 0:28:59In the late '80s, early '90s, I was quite happy to have,
0:28:59 > 0:29:01like, a three-minute scrap.
0:29:01 > 0:29:02But it just reached a point where,
0:29:02 > 0:29:05"If I'm going to get in a fight, I'm going to put you down fast."
0:29:05 > 0:29:08And I would be using manoeuvres that were dangerous
0:29:08 > 0:29:09because I just didn't want to fight.
0:29:09 > 0:29:11It was a case of, "You're going down".
0:29:11 > 0:29:15I'd punch people in the throat, I'd do whatever needed to be done.
0:29:15 > 0:29:17My attitude was, you beat someone up,
0:29:17 > 0:29:19the following week, they come back with ten mates.
0:29:19 > 0:29:22You kill someone, they ain't coming back.
0:29:22 > 0:29:24And that's how my mindset was getting.
0:29:24 > 0:29:26SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT
0:29:28 > 0:29:31An incident went off on the door and my daughter had been born
0:29:31 > 0:29:35and CS gas and pepper spray went off.
0:29:35 > 0:29:39And by the time I got home, obviously, I was covered in it.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43Usually, I'd get home at 4, 4:30, as she was waking up for a feed,
0:29:43 > 0:29:47so I would get in, feed her, my wife, she'd carry on sleeping.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49But this particular night,
0:29:49 > 0:29:54I couldn't touch her because I was literally head to toe CS gas.
0:29:54 > 0:29:55It was all on my clothes.
0:29:55 > 0:29:58And it was from that point I thought, "You know what...?"
0:29:58 > 0:30:00And that was my last night.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04Well, the writing was to get out the demons
0:30:04 > 0:30:06from the days of doing the door work.
0:30:06 > 0:30:09It was a way just to express myself and just...
0:30:09 > 0:30:12There's a lot that sits on your conscience and on your chest.
0:30:12 > 0:30:15It's... You know, you need a way to vent that.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18# Roll out the barrels
0:30:18 > 0:30:21# Welcome to London
0:30:21 > 0:30:23# Roll out the barrels
0:30:23 > 0:30:25# Have a cup of tea with me
0:30:25 > 0:30:27# Welcome to London
0:30:27 > 0:30:29- # Welcome to... - # London is the place to be... #
0:30:29 > 0:30:33The reason I got into filmmaking was to prove a point to another writer.
0:30:33 > 0:30:36The initial idea behind Thugs, Mugs and Violence
0:30:36 > 0:30:39was that there was a lot of talk at the time
0:30:39 > 0:30:43about how expensive it was to make a full production feature film.
0:30:44 > 0:30:46As a published author, I think
0:30:46 > 0:30:49Paul got into conversation with someone and said,
0:30:49 > 0:30:54"Well, I, for the life of me can't see where all the money goes.
0:30:54 > 0:30:58"And I'm pretty positive that I could produce a movie for,
0:30:58 > 0:31:01"you know, less than 10 grand."
0:31:01 > 0:31:04Are you sure this story has no heroes to root for
0:31:04 > 0:31:06and no fairy-tale ending?
0:31:06 > 0:31:09My readers will love it. The end of the London crime scene.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13It's not ended, it's just been forced to change its players.
0:31:13 > 0:31:17First up is Tony Declan, AKA The Ant.
0:31:17 > 0:31:18He runs South London.
0:31:18 > 0:31:24He's a nasty bastard and he doesn't like being pissed off by people.
0:31:24 > 0:31:25We got a cast together.
0:31:25 > 0:31:30Er...scraped together a lot of favours.
0:31:30 > 0:31:35Er...produced some good scenes within the film
0:31:35 > 0:31:37and some not so good.
0:31:37 > 0:31:42Um...I think, basically, down to the fact that we quickly realised
0:31:42 > 0:31:48we'd bitten off more than we could chew with things like, um...sound.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51MUFFLED SOUND
0:32:05 > 0:32:10And, um...er...various people's acting abilities.
0:32:10 > 0:32:12- We'll have this dance later!- Tiff!
0:32:15 > 0:32:16Oh!
0:32:17 > 0:32:22Hold on, rewind a little bit. A bird took down Fearsome?
0:32:22 > 0:32:25Ah, yes, Natalia. The six-foot-five Serbian.
0:32:25 > 0:32:29The deadly killer is part of the Slavic movement in London.
0:32:29 > 0:32:31I had so much fun on our first film,
0:32:31 > 0:32:35despite the fact it was day after day of disasters,
0:32:35 > 0:32:38but from there, it was, like, "You know what, I can..."
0:32:38 > 0:32:41I could see a career in this and that's what I went for.
0:32:43 > 0:32:45Paul Knight had directed a handful of films which had never
0:32:45 > 0:32:49been released, though he had uploaded some of them to Youtube.
0:32:49 > 0:32:51Now came his big break.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54I sat down with AB productions
0:32:54 > 0:32:57and we came up with a list of wonderful directors.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01Because it's very important that you look at directors' works
0:33:01 > 0:33:04and see how they work.
0:33:04 > 0:33:08You know, what type of images they want to give the audience,
0:33:08 > 0:33:10the type of audience they attract,
0:33:10 > 0:33:13the type of shots they're interested in,
0:33:13 > 0:33:15the type of films they're interested in
0:33:15 > 0:33:19and what style they're either coming from or going to.
0:33:19 > 0:33:24When you say big, big fuck-off deal. Just how big are we talking about?
0:33:24 > 0:33:26As big as your cock.
0:33:26 > 0:33:28THEY LAUGH
0:33:28 > 0:33:31Because the film was gangster, thriller,
0:33:31 > 0:33:33we decided to look for someone in that genre.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39Hi, I'm Paul Knight, cofounder of New Breed Productions
0:33:39 > 0:33:42and I am part of a Landscape of Lives
0:33:42 > 0:33:45as the screenplay writer and director.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48I was asked to rewrite Landscape of Lives.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50I read the original and...
0:33:50 > 0:33:53HE EXHALES
0:33:53 > 0:33:56I could see where the author was trying to go,
0:33:56 > 0:33:59um...but I would say, from a writing point of view,
0:33:59 > 0:34:02his own life experiences...
0:34:03 > 0:34:06..made him oversee or fantasise a little bit too much.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09Because he didn't know how the real world worked.
0:34:09 > 0:34:12PIANO RECITAL
0:34:15 > 0:34:18Paul had drawn on his own real-life experiences and reworked
0:34:18 > 0:34:22Stuart Knight's script for our bail birds, Bashar and Aoife.
0:34:22 > 0:34:27The LA thriller had become an Essex crime caper with violent gangsters,
0:34:27 > 0:34:31an Iraqi war veteran and a mystery killer on the loose.
0:34:31 > 0:34:33Things were looking up.
0:34:33 > 0:34:34SHOUTS OF ENCOURAGEMENT
0:34:34 > 0:34:37Freddie and Cliff don't need any introductions,
0:34:37 > 0:34:40if you're from the East End, South London.
0:34:40 > 0:34:42Did I tell you?
0:34:42 > 0:34:45Paul has connections. He's the godson of Charlie Kray.
0:34:45 > 0:34:49Paul, he's been a face for years round about, you know?
0:34:49 > 0:34:51He's come from where we all come from, you know,
0:34:51 > 0:34:53the other side of the fence.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57What do you think of all these British gangster movies?
0:34:57 > 0:34:59I haven't seen a good one yet.
0:34:59 > 0:35:02- Why not?- Because they're not real.
0:35:02 > 0:35:03They're not proper.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07They're writers writing a load of shit, to be honest.
0:35:07 > 0:35:09They don't know what it's all about and they never will do.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12- They don't ask the proper people. - They don't ask the right people.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15Even when they made the Train Robbery, I mean, Buster,
0:35:15 > 0:35:17he was one of the loveliest guys in the world
0:35:17 > 0:35:21and yet, they made him look an idiot.
0:35:21 > 0:35:22When they done The Krays,
0:35:22 > 0:35:25Violet Kray is the loveliest lady you could ever meet.
0:35:25 > 0:35:29It's not a glamorous life being a gangster, anyway.
0:35:29 > 0:35:31You've got to make them real people.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35They're just normal people, like everyone else.
0:35:35 > 0:35:37They've got that criminal streak in them
0:35:37 > 0:35:39and they want to improve their lifestyle.
0:35:43 > 0:35:46You listen to me, you change your attitude, or you'll regret it.
0:35:46 > 0:35:50Are you threatening me, Miss?! I'll have your job for that, yeah!
0:35:50 > 0:35:54Hannah Clancy, make your way to the headmaster's office now.
0:35:54 > 0:35:57- I'll be along shortly. - Why - for a threesome?
0:35:57 > 0:35:58- Yeah, you wish.- Out!
0:36:02 > 0:36:04Cut.
0:36:05 > 0:36:08Paul Knight was knee-deep in production.
0:36:08 > 0:36:11He'd become a pawn in a mug's game.
0:36:11 > 0:36:13He'd written the script,
0:36:13 > 0:36:17but he didn't know what was happening behind the scenes.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19He began to cast his blockbuster
0:36:19 > 0:36:23with a new budget from Bashar of under £100,000.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26Not that that stopped him going after some big names.
0:36:29 > 0:36:31- Thank you.- Yay!
0:36:31 > 0:36:33That's lovely. I'm so happy!
0:36:33 > 0:36:38Trying to find a strong British actress that was known,
0:36:38 > 0:36:42that was in the late 30s bracket
0:36:42 > 0:36:47that you wasn't going to be paying Hollywood money for was tough.
0:36:47 > 0:36:51When I was describing the character of Audrey to my wife
0:36:51 > 0:36:57while writing, she flicked on the TV to Loose Women and she said,
0:36:57 > 0:36:59"You've just described this woman".
0:36:59 > 0:37:01And it was Andrea McLean.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05Oxford Dictionaries have revealed their word of the year.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09It's something long, hard to pron... Something long and hard!
0:37:09 > 0:37:12I just contacted her agent and I said,
0:37:12 > 0:37:14"Look, I know she doesn't act,
0:37:14 > 0:37:16"but I've got this film, we're shooting this month".
0:37:16 > 0:37:19And the agent said, "Well, I'll pass on the script to her".
0:37:19 > 0:37:22And then I got an email direct from Andrea.
0:37:22 > 0:37:24She said, "Look, I haven't acted,
0:37:24 > 0:37:27"but I would kick myself if I turned down an opportunity".
0:37:27 > 0:37:30She said, "I can't guarantee I'm going to be any good".
0:37:30 > 0:37:34And it was, like, "Well, from what you've read, I can work with."
0:37:34 > 0:37:36And that's how we got her involved.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39I got a phone call from a friend of mine who's in the kind of film game.
0:37:39 > 0:37:42And just said, "Danny, there's a part come up. Are you available?
0:37:42 > 0:37:45"The director's seen your work, he's happy for you to play it.
0:37:45 > 0:37:46"Do you want to come along and do it?"
0:37:46 > 0:37:48I said, "Send me over the script".
0:37:48 > 0:37:52I saw the script, it was a bit of a PA secretary part,
0:37:52 > 0:37:54which is kind of different to what I normally play, so I was, like,
0:37:54 > 0:37:56"Great. Show a bit of variety."
0:37:56 > 0:37:59Paul came to me, I was working in a bar in Soho
0:37:59 > 0:38:01and he literally offered me the role.
0:38:01 > 0:38:05He had me down for playing Tess in the film.
0:38:05 > 0:38:10And working with the calibre of actors he was showcasing to me,
0:38:10 > 0:38:13I was, like, "Yeah, man, bang in there!"
0:38:13 > 0:38:16So, yeah, it was a great opportunity and I love how Paul writes.
0:38:16 > 0:38:23Like, he's like a modern-day, er...er...urban Shakespeare.
0:38:23 > 0:38:28I try and keep it flowing as far to the end as possible.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32I mean, we did... On the rough draft of it, we had a quick read-through.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35I want that land and you're going to sell it to me.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38- Why would I do that? - Because you're a smart man.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41You have a lovely family, a great home.
0:38:41 > 0:38:43- Do you want to keep that? - Are you threatening me?
0:38:43 > 0:38:45Did you hear me threatening you?
0:38:45 > 0:38:48I think you've seen too many gangster movies.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51You look around this city and you can't throw a stone
0:38:51 > 0:38:55without hitting something that is there because of me.
0:38:55 > 0:38:58I make no bones that in my past, I've done bad things.
0:38:58 > 0:39:02I ran with bad people, was in certain crowds.
0:39:02 > 0:39:04We did things.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07And my wife criticises my work
0:39:07 > 0:39:12because she says I don't put no heart into my characters.
0:39:12 > 0:39:16I live in a world where... That's because I know there is no heart.
0:39:16 > 0:39:17You know what I mean?
0:39:17 > 0:39:20That is for soppy love stories, that's not the real world.
0:39:20 > 0:39:21The real world, this is how it is.
0:39:21 > 0:39:26But I do know that a film's got to have four "oh-ohs",
0:39:26 > 0:39:30and one "Oh, fuck" moment.
0:39:30 > 0:39:34The land isn't for sale. Construction is already under way.
0:39:34 > 0:39:36Then change them and find somewhere else to build,
0:39:36 > 0:39:39or you will find out just how far my influence goes.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43Nah. I think it's you that's watched too many gangster films.
0:39:44 > 0:39:46I don't watch gangster films,
0:39:46 > 0:39:49I'm the fucking evil bastard that they all are based on.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52I think you'd better leave now, before I call security.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54Shut up, you fucking muppet!
0:39:54 > 0:39:56These are lines, in all fairness,
0:39:56 > 0:40:00that I have said to people in... a previous life, if you like.
0:40:00 > 0:40:06- Er...- Paul thought this film was his big break.
0:40:06 > 0:40:08His reward for going straight.
0:40:08 > 0:40:11But it's hard to leave the place you've come from.
0:40:11 > 0:40:15Maybe it was a sixth sense, but the last detail,
0:40:15 > 0:40:19just before shooting, Paul added a final correction to the script,
0:40:19 > 0:40:22removing one letter from the title.
0:40:22 > 0:40:27A Landscape of Lives became A Landscape of Lies.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30Scene 32, slate 1, take 6.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33There is a lot of fine detail.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36And the fine-detailing of that comes down to
0:40:36 > 0:40:41motivating a team to do the vision, which is within words.
0:40:41 > 0:40:46And moving that words from actual words into a story,
0:40:46 > 0:40:49which is visually... Can be conveyed.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52And that pulls a lot of consensus.
0:40:52 > 0:40:53OK, good. Yeah.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56Scene 32, slate 1, take 1.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00And so began one of the most imaginative attempts
0:41:00 > 0:41:04to cover one's tracks in the history of covering one's tracks.
0:41:04 > 0:41:08This was going to be a movie like no other -
0:41:08 > 0:41:12in which the entire cast and crew, unbeknown to themselves,
0:41:12 > 0:41:16would be acting out an alibi for a multimillion-pound fraud
0:41:16 > 0:41:18against Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21Why indeed, Mr Fassbender?
0:41:21 > 0:41:25Day one on business, we clashed. Because he didn't have...
0:41:25 > 0:41:27The deal was, I was getting the crew on
0:41:27 > 0:41:30and we was paying 50% of their money upfront
0:41:30 > 0:41:32and they wasn't getting the rest
0:41:32 > 0:41:35until the end of the shoot, when we wrapped.
0:41:35 > 0:41:38And I said, "Right, I've got the DOP, I've got the sound guy,
0:41:38 > 0:41:42"I've got the lighting guys, they're all coming up to the office.
0:41:42 > 0:41:47"I will need whatever the sum was there so I can pay 'em."
0:41:48 > 0:41:51And he failed to get the money.
0:41:51 > 0:41:54So straightaway, it was, like, "Well, you're making me look silly.
0:41:54 > 0:41:57"I'm doing you the favour, all you had to do was supply the money.
0:41:57 > 0:41:59"Go get the money.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01"You keep telling me you're a rich bloody building guy,
0:42:01 > 0:42:03"go to your bloody bank.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06"I can go to my bank. Go to your bank and get the money."
0:42:06 > 0:42:10He took offence, felt he shouldn't be spoken to like that.
0:42:10 > 0:42:15So straightaway, we're locking... you know. He's not having it.
0:42:15 > 0:42:17I won't take his bollocks
0:42:17 > 0:42:21and I certainly wasn't going to bow down to him.
0:42:21 > 0:42:27There was kind of like a power struggle between Paul and Bashar.
0:42:27 > 0:42:30Because Bashar likes to be, um...
0:42:30 > 0:42:34Bashar and Aoife, they both like to be in control.
0:42:34 > 0:42:40So, our cast was meant to arrive at 3.00, it is now 5.55. Huh!
0:42:40 > 0:42:42Luckily, we still aren't ready for them,
0:42:42 > 0:42:44but they are three hours late.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47- But we have food. - Food has been ordered.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51- Dinner is pasta, pizzas...- Lasagne.
0:42:51 > 0:42:55..lasagne, bolognese and much more out in the kitchens.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57Lots of chocolate, lots of coffee.
0:42:57 > 0:42:59Lots of coffee.
0:42:59 > 0:43:00And we're trying to get it ready,
0:43:00 > 0:43:04but we're quite concerned that we have no crew and no cast
0:43:04 > 0:43:07- at present.- It's just us. - And we don't know where they are.
0:43:07 > 0:43:10- HE SIGHS - As a producer?
0:43:11 > 0:43:13Eager...
0:43:13 > 0:43:15willing...
0:43:15 > 0:43:17..inexperienced. There you go, there's three words.
0:43:17 > 0:43:22To be honest, it was like any other, um...low-budget British film set.
0:43:22 > 0:43:24You know, it was quite organised.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27The first AD seemed to be quite organised and prompt.
0:43:27 > 0:43:29We was moving forward quite quickly.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31The director seemed to know what he wanted
0:43:31 > 0:43:35and he spent time with the actors, but not lots and lots and lots.
0:43:35 > 0:43:38We wasn't shooting hundreds of pages a day, but enough.
0:43:38 > 0:43:40Charmed, I'm sure.
0:43:44 > 0:43:46And cut!
0:43:46 > 0:43:49I concluded my final day's shoot and from what I'd seen personally,
0:43:49 > 0:43:53I thought we had something that was pretty worthy.
0:43:53 > 0:43:56At the end, it was just a great feeling that that was it.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58We wrapped.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01Um...I was in a position to pay off the heads of departments'
0:44:01 > 0:44:05final payment, everyone was settled and it was, like,
0:44:05 > 0:44:07down the local boozer, let's have a couple.
0:44:07 > 0:44:11For the cast and crew involved, that was the day they finished
0:44:11 > 0:44:13and my journey continued.
0:44:13 > 0:44:15And obviously, then, it was,
0:44:15 > 0:44:18"Well, now you need to settle up some bills
0:44:18 > 0:44:21"before it goes into edit and now you need to do this and..."
0:44:21 > 0:44:24As far as I was concerned, four months, we've gone from
0:44:24 > 0:44:26finalising a script, here's your finished film.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30We went for a viewing around Aoife's flat Sunday night.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33Didn't even start watching it till, like, one in the morning
0:44:33 > 0:44:36because I literally came straight from the editor's house
0:44:36 > 0:44:39and just went, "There's your finished product. Give it a watch."
0:44:49 > 0:44:54We all sat down, they had, like, comfy sofas and a projector.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58- So we watched the film. - RAPID GUNFIRE
0:44:58 > 0:45:00- What the fuck was that?!- Pull back!
0:45:00 > 0:45:02- I can't see a fucking thing! - Pull back!
0:45:02 > 0:45:05Pull back! Everyone pull the fuck back!
0:45:05 > 0:45:07RAPID GUNFIRE
0:45:07 > 0:45:08HE GASPS
0:45:08 > 0:45:11The whole idea of whatever your budget is,
0:45:11 > 0:45:14your end result's got to look like it's ten times more.
0:45:14 > 0:45:19Um...and I believe, with the production value and the props
0:45:19 > 0:45:22and the cars and what we used in the film...
0:45:23 > 0:45:26..you wouldn't doubt that it could cost a million pound.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28HORN BLASTS
0:45:30 > 0:45:31Oi-oi, saveloy.
0:45:31 > 0:45:36Sarge. You, er...coming or going?
0:45:36 > 0:45:38I've already finished coming, son.
0:45:38 > 0:45:40Hop in, I'll treat you to breakfast.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47Basically, we've got a couple of guys who've met in the army,
0:45:47 > 0:45:49um...have served together,
0:45:49 > 0:45:53um...have both been honourably discharged.
0:45:53 > 0:45:57- You stay and finish up. You got my back?- Always.
0:45:58 > 0:46:00I know you do, soldier.
0:46:00 > 0:46:02You stay safe.
0:46:02 > 0:46:05And all of a sudden, one of them has been found murdered.
0:46:05 > 0:46:07And so his friend, who's served with him,
0:46:07 > 0:46:10has decided that something's not quite right
0:46:10 > 0:46:15and he'll start to conduct his own type of investigation.
0:46:15 > 0:46:19- Jane?- Yeah.- Brannigan sent me.
0:46:19 > 0:46:21- Ah, you're Jacob, right?- Yeah.
0:46:21 > 0:46:24Welcome to the Blue Lounge.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28- Is this a strip club?- Burlesque. - Is there a difference?
0:46:28 > 0:46:31Big-time. Burlesque is really in at the moment.
0:46:31 > 0:46:34The crowd loves it. It's more tease than sleaze.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38It's not a straightforward revenge, it's not a straightforward thriller,
0:46:38 > 0:46:42it's not a straightforward drama, it's not a straightforward romance.
0:46:42 > 0:46:46So it's just a collection of four people's lives entwined
0:46:46 > 0:46:49and there just happens to be murder and intrigue
0:46:49 > 0:46:51and double-crossing involved.
0:46:55 > 0:46:58- You bastard! What did you do to him?!- What you talking about?!
0:46:58 > 0:47:03You were working with him last night! You're here and he's dead!
0:47:03 > 0:47:05I came over as soon as I seen it on the news.
0:47:07 > 0:47:09I'm DCI Lane.
0:47:09 > 0:47:14We had a good script, um...we had some...some...um...
0:47:14 > 0:47:16loosely termed, named actors.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19Certainly people you'd recognise off the TV.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22- Your friend seems to have had a great night.- Mm.
0:47:22 > 0:47:26- She deserves it. She's a good girl.- Oh, really?
0:47:26 > 0:47:29And what about you? Good girl? Bad girl?
0:47:29 > 0:47:31- Oh, I'm a bad girl.- Yeah?
0:47:31 > 0:47:32I'm a really bad girl!
0:47:32 > 0:47:35I'm a massive fan of Loose Women, so when I saw it,
0:47:35 > 0:47:39I was, like, "Oh, my God, you're that chick from Loose Women!"
0:47:39 > 0:47:42And she goes, "Yeah, yeah, I'm Andrea McLean."
0:47:42 > 0:47:45I was, like... Um...it was a real pleasure to meet her,
0:47:45 > 0:47:47because we actually had a little chat because she was nervous.
0:47:47 > 0:47:50How's Alice?
0:47:50 > 0:47:53She's good. She misses you.
0:47:53 > 0:47:55You should come over for dinner one night.
0:47:55 > 0:47:59And our relationship in the film was basically that we had
0:47:59 > 0:48:01something kind of, maybe going on.
0:48:01 > 0:48:03So there was another sort of, um...puzzle, you know,
0:48:03 > 0:48:06a bit of the landscape happening that Paul was sort of trying to,
0:48:06 > 0:48:08er...piece together.
0:48:08 > 0:48:10The land isn't for sale.
0:48:10 > 0:48:12Construction plans are already under way.
0:48:12 > 0:48:14Hm.
0:48:15 > 0:48:17Change 'em.
0:48:18 > 0:48:19Look at me.
0:48:21 > 0:48:25And go and build yourself somewhere else.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32Or you will see just how far my influence goes.
0:48:32 > 0:48:35I think it's you who's watched too many gangster movies.
0:48:35 > 0:48:37HE CHUCKLES
0:48:42 > 0:48:43I don't watch gangster movies!
0:48:45 > 0:48:48I'm the evil fucking bastard that they base them on.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51I think you'd better go before I call security, OK?
0:48:52 > 0:48:57There was a bit in the film when, um...I say something like, um...
0:48:57 > 0:48:59"I will find you and I will kill you."
0:48:59 > 0:49:01It was kind like, um...in, er...
0:49:01 > 0:49:04Liam Neeson in Taken. I had that in my head.
0:49:05 > 0:49:06You involve the police...
0:49:07 > 0:49:09..I WILL kill you.
0:49:10 > 0:49:13And your wife. And your daughter.
0:49:13 > 0:49:16And your fuckin' next door neighbour's cat.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19Everyone seemed to enjoy it, with the exception of Bashar.
0:49:19 > 0:49:21"I didn't get it."
0:49:21 > 0:49:22And it was like,
0:49:22 > 0:49:25"Well, it's the script that you had four months ago."
0:49:25 > 0:49:28"Well, I didn't read the script, so..."
0:49:28 > 0:49:30I said, "Well, this is your film."
0:49:30 > 0:49:33They tied her to that dead body they found down at the site.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35What?
0:49:35 > 0:49:36Did she do it?
0:49:36 > 0:49:38How would I know?
0:49:38 > 0:49:40Cos that woman don't fart unless you tell her to.
0:49:40 > 0:49:42Yeah, well, they didn't nick her for farting, Jacob,
0:49:42 > 0:49:44they nicked her for murder.
0:49:44 > 0:49:46The film has some desert scenes in it,
0:49:46 > 0:49:50so we had to think about how we would organise
0:49:50 > 0:49:52how we would get a team out into the Middle East
0:49:52 > 0:49:55to film the desert scenes.
0:49:55 > 0:49:57We found out, actually, that the best way to approach that
0:49:57 > 0:49:59was to go to Jordan,
0:49:59 > 0:50:02where the Jordanian Film Council welcome a lot of films -
0:50:02 > 0:50:07Hurt Locker was filmed there, many other films have been filmed there,
0:50:07 > 0:50:10so they welcomed us very well -
0:50:10 > 0:50:14but that's another story, which I'll go into another time.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17In Landscape Of Lies I was a soldier.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20Um...yeah.
0:50:20 > 0:50:23I turned up to location, and...
0:50:23 > 0:50:25the first thing I thought was,
0:50:25 > 0:50:28"Oh, my God, this film is going to be crap."
0:50:28 > 0:50:29Jake, pour me a big one, will you?
0:50:29 > 0:50:32- And a small fruit juice for the lady.- Fuck off, I'll have what I want!
0:50:32 > 0:50:35- Ease off her, she'll kick your arse, mate.- She can lick my arse.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37We both know you don't go back to front.
0:50:37 > 0:50:39Sullings, you ever been mistaken for a man?
0:50:39 > 0:50:41- No, have you?!- Attention! - LAUGHTER
0:50:41 > 0:50:45Pretending to be in the desert, when I was actually in a...
0:50:45 > 0:50:47Where were we?
0:50:47 > 0:50:49Um...was it Essex? I can't remember.
0:50:49 > 0:50:52But in some quarry somewhere!
0:50:56 > 0:51:00When you have Maeve and Aoife dressed in burqas,
0:51:00 > 0:51:05and they have, like, a table and someone selling fruit, I think...
0:51:05 > 0:51:09and there was, like, a boy in a burqa...
0:51:09 > 0:51:11It was just laughable.
0:51:12 > 0:51:15Now, you can see why a geezer might think
0:51:15 > 0:51:17this lot were not arch-villains.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21Which self-respecting criminal would try on a cover-up like this?
0:51:24 > 0:51:27The first time I met Aoife was at the Soho Screening Rooms
0:51:27 > 0:51:30at the screening of Landscape Of Lies,
0:51:30 > 0:51:33and Aoife was kind of running the screening.
0:51:33 > 0:51:34So, I watched this film,
0:51:34 > 0:51:39and the producer asked me, "What did you think of the film?"
0:51:39 > 0:51:44And I said, "Well, for one thing, you've got typos in your credits."
0:51:44 > 0:51:47She said, "Typos?" I said, "Yes, you've spelt words wrong -
0:51:47 > 0:51:50"like 'colourist' is spelt 'courist'."
0:51:50 > 0:51:52And I said, "You should get that right, really."
0:51:52 > 0:51:54And, "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll make a note of that."
0:51:54 > 0:51:58And then I said, "Well, why would you invent a second unit in Jordan?
0:51:58 > 0:52:01"There's no second unit." "Oh, no, yes, there is!"
0:52:01 > 0:52:02I said, "No, you filmed this...
0:52:02 > 0:52:06"you filmed this army scene in a field in Dorset,
0:52:06 > 0:52:08"it's, like grass," you know?
0:52:08 > 0:52:12"I've lived in the Middle East, this is not filmed in the Middle East."
0:52:12 > 0:52:14"Oh, no..."
0:52:14 > 0:52:15So, I questioned Bashar -
0:52:15 > 0:52:18I said, "Why would you invent a second unit in Jordan?"
0:52:18 > 0:52:19"Oh, no, we DO have a second..."
0:52:19 > 0:52:22I said, "No." I said, "All of the names of the crewmembers..."
0:52:22 > 0:52:25Because I've lived in the Middle East, I know Middle Eastern names -
0:52:25 > 0:52:29the equivalent was "John Smith", "Mary Blogg", "Joe Blogg",
0:52:29 > 0:52:32I mean, these were generic Arabic names.
0:52:32 > 0:52:35- GUNSHOT - Oh, shit! Contact, contact!
0:52:35 > 0:52:37- What the fuck was that? - GUNSHOT
0:52:37 > 0:52:39I can't see a fucking thing! Pull back.
0:52:39 > 0:52:41Pull back - everyone pull the fuck back.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44- Pull the fuck back! - GUNSHOT
0:52:46 > 0:52:48KNOCK AT DOOR
0:52:48 > 0:52:51We weren't to know that they were going to make a film
0:52:51 > 0:52:55until another very astute officer was doing some research
0:52:55 > 0:52:59on the internet and realised that all of a sudden,
0:52:59 > 0:53:03a film that WAS going to be made, called A Landscape Of Lives -
0:53:03 > 0:53:06which wasn't a film, and we were absolutely certain wasn't a film -
0:53:06 > 0:53:10had now become something called A Landscape Of Lies.
0:53:10 > 0:53:11What are you doing here?
0:53:11 > 0:53:14I just needed someone to talk to.
0:53:14 > 0:53:15Come in.
0:53:15 > 0:53:17We were staggered, to be honest -
0:53:17 > 0:53:20in fact, it was the cause, initially, of much hilarity -
0:53:20 > 0:53:26that Mr Al-Issa believed if he produced a film,
0:53:26 > 0:53:28the case would go away.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32And we all firmly believed, to a man, on the team,
0:53:32 > 0:53:34they were doing this in order to prevent us
0:53:34 > 0:53:36charging them with the fraud.
0:53:39 > 0:53:42Bashar and Aoife had a lot to prove -
0:53:42 > 0:53:43but why the Jordanian ruse?
0:53:44 > 0:53:48It was the wrong time to play silly with the authorities.
0:53:48 > 0:53:51The British Government had started investigating
0:53:51 > 0:53:55a handful of film producers and financiers for film tax fraud.
0:53:55 > 0:53:58Their inquiries had dragged on -
0:53:58 > 0:54:01up until this point, without many guilty verdicts.
0:54:01 > 0:54:03There have been about 255 investments.
0:54:03 > 0:54:06How many of them have actually been investigated or challenged by HMRC?
0:54:06 > 0:54:08Er, so, I have that information.
0:54:08 > 0:54:14Um, of the 255, 127 have been subjected to HMRC inquiries,
0:54:14 > 0:54:1613 are in litigation,
0:54:16 > 0:54:19two have been fully litigated,
0:54:19 > 0:54:23all they way to the Court of Appeal, and we won both.
0:54:24 > 0:54:29The taxman was under pressure to find a clear-cut case, and win it...
0:54:29 > 0:54:33and then, along came A Landscape Of Lives.
0:54:33 > 0:54:35So, the officer looked behind the company
0:54:35 > 0:54:40that allegedly supplied lighting, crew and production costs.
0:54:40 > 0:54:44Aoife Madden produced to him invoices with AB Productions on -
0:54:44 > 0:54:46who are they? Where are they?
0:54:46 > 0:54:49It was a very simple job for him to go back into the office,
0:54:49 > 0:54:51look into AB Productions,
0:54:51 > 0:54:55so he contacted colleagues in Manchester, he said to them,
0:54:55 > 0:54:57"Would you go round?
0:54:57 > 0:54:59"Do they look like a film company?"
0:55:00 > 0:55:04The crazy thing that did happen is that, because of my nature,
0:55:04 > 0:55:09I allowed myself to sit in a VAT meeting -
0:55:09 > 0:55:12which, again, used my office -
0:55:12 > 0:55:15and principally, because Osama isn't a very good communicator,
0:55:15 > 0:55:17and knowing that from having worked with him
0:55:17 > 0:55:19inside the construction side,
0:55:19 > 0:55:21then I tried to explain to the VAT officer
0:55:21 > 0:55:25that this WAS a legitimate film, cos it's what I believed,
0:55:25 > 0:55:27and explain what was happening.
0:55:27 > 0:55:29So, she then reads into,
0:55:29 > 0:55:32well, I'm just carrying on the lie that exists.
0:55:33 > 0:55:35Her Majesty's Customs & Revenue
0:55:35 > 0:55:39thought they'd uncovered a classic, time-honoured scam -
0:55:39 > 0:55:41the VAT "carousel".
0:55:42 > 0:55:46They'd seen three different companies all set up by Bashar -
0:55:46 > 0:55:50Evolved, AB and A to Z -
0:55:50 > 0:55:53all making A Landscape Of Lives.
0:55:55 > 0:55:58These companies had billed each other for the damage,
0:55:58 > 0:56:02and claimed back thousands in VAT -
0:56:02 > 0:56:05without paying out any dosh themselves.
0:56:07 > 0:56:11And then they wired that cash into accounts in a foreign country
0:56:11 > 0:56:13where they HADN'T been filming.
0:56:13 > 0:56:19We know that the £800,000, when it was paid out by HMRC,
0:56:19 > 0:56:22left the country pretty quickly.
0:56:22 > 0:56:25It went off to banks in Jordan.
0:56:25 > 0:56:28Fraud, generally, it's about money. It's about greed.
0:56:28 > 0:56:32It's how much people can get out of whatever rip-off they're running.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36So, the money moves very, very quickly, in my experience,
0:56:36 > 0:56:38out of the recipient account.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41Because one of the things, clearly, that we are going to do,
0:56:41 > 0:56:44as investigators, is look at where the money's gone.
0:56:44 > 0:56:47Follow the money, you can usually unravel the fraud.
0:56:47 > 0:56:49The more I hear about the shenanigans on this
0:56:49 > 0:56:51Landscape Of Lies, the more amazed I am.
0:56:51 > 0:56:53Because if I put in a VAT rebate claim for a grand,
0:56:53 > 0:56:56they're all over it forensically, trying to not give it to you,
0:56:56 > 0:56:58because, you know - the Revenue are lovely,
0:56:58 > 0:57:00but they never want to give you any money back.
0:57:00 > 0:57:01I mean, HMRC scrutinise everything.
0:57:01 > 0:57:04I really don't know how they managed to get that under the radar.
0:57:04 > 0:57:08You know, I guess maybe they were on holiday that week.
0:57:08 > 0:57:11Aoife and Bashar had been on bail for eight months,
0:57:11 > 0:57:13and had produced a feature film -
0:57:13 > 0:57:17and once they'd done it, they didn't fancy stopping there.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20It was enjoyable, this film lark.
0:57:20 > 0:57:24They submitted A Landscape Of Lies to international film festivals.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28It was accepted by two of the minor ones -
0:57:28 > 0:57:29Marbella, in Spain...
0:57:30 > 0:57:32..and Las Vegas...
0:57:32 > 0:57:36coincidentally, two hotbeds of organised crime.
0:57:36 > 0:57:38Bashar wanted to sell the film,
0:57:38 > 0:57:41so he took it to Europe's biggest festival,
0:57:41 > 0:57:43Cannes.
0:57:43 > 0:57:44- ALANA:- Cannes was really good.
0:57:44 > 0:57:49Me and Bashar drove down to Cannes, and I had set up
0:57:49 > 0:57:53a load of meetings with distribution companies and sales agents -
0:57:53 > 0:57:55we had a meeting with Universal -
0:57:55 > 0:57:58and Bashar was wanting to sell Landscape Of Lies -
0:57:58 > 0:58:02but he also wanted to know what was selling really well,
0:58:02 > 0:58:05what audience wanted.
0:58:05 > 0:58:08They said that you could sell horror a lot easier
0:58:08 > 0:58:10than you could a British crime thriller -
0:58:10 > 0:58:13and that's why we ended up making Crux.
0:58:13 > 0:58:16Bashar didn't sell A Landscape Of Lies in Cannes,
0:58:16 > 0:58:20but the trip inspired him to try his hand at another movie genre.
0:58:20 > 0:58:24Aoife's brother Joe wrote the script in two weeks,
0:58:24 > 0:58:27and Aoife found the location.
0:58:27 > 0:58:32We shot a film in...I think it was, like, a month, end-to-end.
0:58:32 > 0:58:35Bashar did say he thought he'd learnt enough to direct
0:58:35 > 0:58:38the next one, after Landscape Of Lies.
0:58:38 > 0:58:41This probably wasn't true - but the idea was,
0:58:41 > 0:58:43he thought he probably could.
0:58:47 > 0:58:51I think it was something like 25,000 to make Crux.
0:58:51 > 0:58:54Though that's not the figure on "the Wikipedia of the movies" -
0:58:54 > 0:58:57the IMDB website.
0:58:57 > 0:58:59GIRL SCREAMS
0:59:03 > 0:59:06I thought it should have been a comedy film,
0:59:06 > 0:59:09because horror and comedy do go well together.
0:59:09 > 0:59:12We urgently need your help. Do you have a phone we could use?
0:59:12 > 0:59:14'But as a horror film, it stank.'
0:59:14 > 0:59:16A phone?
0:59:19 > 0:59:20A telephone?
0:59:20 > 0:59:24Look, please, do you have a telephone or not?
0:59:24 > 0:59:27Ah, yes. A telephone!
0:59:33 > 0:59:34Paul Knight was surprised
0:59:34 > 0:59:37his old producers were still playing doubles.
0:59:37 > 0:59:43It was later in the year. I met Aoife for drinks,
0:59:43 > 0:59:47so this is... I haven't spoken to Bashar for months at this point.
0:59:47 > 0:59:52The film, obviously, went on into some film festivals
0:59:52 > 0:59:55and she contacted me because she needed new copies.
0:59:55 > 0:59:57And that's when she was telling me,
0:59:57 > 1:00:00"Bashar, you know, he really stuffed me over,
1:00:00 > 1:00:02"he's trying to set me up to take the fall for all this."
1:00:02 > 1:00:05And I was like, "Oh, wow," but in the next breath
1:00:05 > 1:00:09I said, "But then you've made Crux with him. So..."
1:00:09 > 1:00:12"Oh, yeah, well, you know, I've got to stick with him."
1:00:12 > 1:00:16I knew that Bashar had a court case coming up
1:00:16 > 1:00:17but that, according to him,
1:00:17 > 1:00:22was to do with his properties in Manchester.
1:00:22 > 1:00:26Bashar made it seem as though everything was hunky-dory, really.
1:00:28 > 1:00:31We're presented here with three companies
1:00:31 > 1:00:34and a group of individuals that are not credible,
1:00:34 > 1:00:38that have already had £800,000 out of HMRC,
1:00:38 > 1:00:43but actually if they'd had their way and everything had gone to plan,
1:00:43 > 1:00:47they would have got away with 2.5 million.
1:00:47 > 1:00:49And that's far too much money.
1:00:49 > 1:00:52That... They've got a lot of money out of us,
1:00:52 > 1:00:55but they're really going for the big one on the film tax credit side.
1:01:01 > 1:01:04I was instructed in the autumn of 2012.
1:01:04 > 1:01:06It was the first film tax credit case that I had done,
1:01:06 > 1:01:08and in fact, I think, I believe,
1:01:08 > 1:01:11it's the first one that's actually been through the courts, I think.
1:01:11 > 1:01:15So it was sort of learning how the fraud worked,
1:01:15 > 1:01:18as much as the evidence to prove this particular fraud.
1:01:18 > 1:01:22A case this big, tens of thousands of documents,
1:01:22 > 1:01:24lots of digital material to look at,
1:01:24 > 1:01:26lots of computers, lots of phones.
1:01:26 > 1:01:29It's quite unusual to charge within six, seven months,
1:01:29 > 1:01:31quite often it's longer than that.
1:01:33 > 1:01:36Bashar had no anxiety about this.
1:01:36 > 1:01:38He didn't think he'd done anything wrong.
1:01:38 > 1:01:43He always seems to have a very simple, spiritual view of the world
1:01:43 > 1:01:45and everything in it.
1:01:45 > 1:01:48He just couldn't understand why they were pursuing him.
1:01:50 > 1:01:54In autumn 2012, the trial date was finally set
1:01:54 > 1:01:57for the end of January the following year.
1:01:57 > 1:02:00But even with the legal eagles circling round, our producers felt
1:02:00 > 1:02:05there was still time for one last roll of the movie-making dice.
1:02:06 > 1:02:08Now, this is exciting.
1:02:08 > 1:02:13We're about to take you on the set of a horror film as it's being made.
1:02:13 > 1:02:16The film is Dissection,
1:02:16 > 1:02:18so let's take a peek.
1:02:21 > 1:02:23Hi, I'm Mel, reporting for Indiecan.
1:02:23 > 1:02:25We're here today on the set of new horror film Dissection
1:02:25 > 1:02:29at Murder Mile Studios in North London. Let's go and have a look.
1:02:29 > 1:02:35I came across this job by responding to an ad online for a sci-fi writer.
1:02:35 > 1:02:41I sent an outline for a sci-fi film, didn't hear from them for months
1:02:41 > 1:02:44and then out of the blue, I got an e-mail
1:02:44 > 1:02:51and they sent me a treatment for a sort of torture porn horror movie,
1:02:51 > 1:02:54so I was invited in for a meeting at an office in Edgware Road.
1:02:56 > 1:02:58Bashar was in a kind of flurry the whole time.
1:02:58 > 1:03:01He had this way of just...
1:03:02 > 1:03:03..you know, talking abundantly,
1:03:03 > 1:03:05but saying absolutely nothing at the same time.
1:03:05 > 1:03:09We decided to do another horror
1:03:09 > 1:03:13and throughout the journey, I was thinking about ideas
1:03:13 > 1:03:19of a different horror film which has more gore and more sort of...
1:03:19 > 1:03:20depth into it.
1:03:22 > 1:03:24WOMAN GRUNTS
1:03:24 > 1:03:30And at that time, I started formulating a synopsis.
1:03:30 > 1:03:34From that synopsis, I've collaborated with a creative team
1:03:34 > 1:03:36which moved it into a treatment.
1:03:36 > 1:03:41As preproduction went on, he started to talk about how he has...
1:03:41 > 1:03:44he'd like to direct it. He's been talking to a director,
1:03:44 > 1:03:48but he feels he's more inclined to direct it at the moment,
1:03:48 > 1:03:51and a few weeks before we started shooting, I actually said to him,
1:03:51 > 1:03:55"Look, Bashar, you seem really busy with all this other stuff you're doing,
1:03:55 > 1:03:59"your business meetings and all these talks with investors, etc.
1:03:59 > 1:04:02"Do you need someone else to direct it?"
1:04:02 > 1:04:05"No, no, no, don't worry. I'll be ready, I'll be ready.
1:04:05 > 1:04:09"I know I seem very busy right now, but on the day, I'll be ready."
1:04:09 > 1:04:11And... And he wasn't.
1:04:11 > 1:04:15But then later on, she says, "I know that you don't want to,"
1:04:15 > 1:04:17because that relates to later when she says,
1:04:17 > 1:04:20"I know you don't want to be here, I know you're a prisoner just like us,"
1:04:20 > 1:04:22- and then I help her. - And that's why I do that.
1:04:22 > 1:04:24And she goes, "Maybe not," because she sees...
1:04:24 > 1:04:26And then they have a whole conversation about,
1:04:26 > 1:04:29they're prisoners here just like us. It actually runs through the script.
1:04:29 > 1:04:32- Yeah, but they still want to escape. - Should we just do it like that?
1:04:32 > 1:04:36- We don't have time to worry about this sort of stuff. - But they still want to escape.
1:04:36 > 1:04:38On set, tension was mounting.
1:04:41 > 1:04:43SHE SOBS
1:04:43 > 1:04:46What are you doing now?
1:04:46 > 1:04:49Bashar and Maeve stopped seeing each other and they would have little,
1:04:49 > 1:04:55like, disagreements and it just made things a bit awkward sometimes.
1:04:55 > 1:04:57SHE SCREAMS
1:04:57 > 1:05:00Cut. Cut.
1:05:00 > 1:05:03I actually did see, towards the end of filming,
1:05:03 > 1:05:07Maeve have some tete-a-tetes with Aoife,
1:05:07 > 1:05:10which I just took as sisterly support,
1:05:10 > 1:05:14because it's tough making a movie, and...
1:05:14 > 1:05:16And then, on the odd occasion,
1:05:16 > 1:05:19she would go off for a little tete-a-tete with Bashar,
1:05:19 > 1:05:22but in hindsight, you can speculate all you want,
1:05:22 > 1:05:24but what is certainly true
1:05:24 > 1:05:27is that towards the end of filming of Dissection,
1:05:27 > 1:05:31there were progressively more and more little tete-a-tetes that would happen.
1:05:31 > 1:05:34- Could you guys all step out of the light, please?- Sorry.
1:05:34 > 1:05:38And she was definitely worried and concerned.
1:05:38 > 1:05:41The whole process just really was how not to make a film.
1:05:47 > 1:05:52By the end of 2012, Bashar and Aoife had shot three feature films.
1:05:52 > 1:05:53An unholy trinity.
1:06:00 > 1:06:03But everyone in London works hard to get ahead.
1:06:03 > 1:06:07Detectives from the British tax authority, HMRC,
1:06:07 > 1:06:10had been beavering away themselves.
1:06:10 > 1:06:12TRAIN HORN BLARES
1:06:14 > 1:06:21So it was early November that I got this e-mail from the HMRC
1:06:21 > 1:06:25and they were just telling me what Evolved and AB had been doing
1:06:25 > 1:06:29with this conspiracy to defraud the Film Tax Office
1:06:29 > 1:06:32and VAT fraud, and at first
1:06:32 > 1:06:37I'm like, "So they evaded some tax?" What's it got to do with me?"
1:06:37 > 1:06:41Because I know everyone in my film, with the exception of me, got paid,
1:06:41 > 1:06:44and that it was cash, and I've got all the receipts
1:06:44 > 1:06:49and invoices for the entire 84K, so I'm not seeing what's gone wrong.
1:06:49 > 1:06:52Then obviously they highlighted about Landscape of Lives
1:06:52 > 1:06:55and this £19.6 million budget
1:06:55 > 1:07:00and it's like, well, "Obviously you helped cover the crime up."
1:07:00 > 1:07:01So then they said,
1:07:01 > 1:07:04"Well, if you're innocent, we need you to make a statement."
1:07:04 > 1:07:07And I said, "Well, no, hang on. I know the law.
1:07:07 > 1:07:09"The minute I make a statement,
1:07:09 > 1:07:11"I can then not have no dealings with them."
1:07:11 > 1:07:14And they said, "Why do you want to deal with them anyway,
1:07:14 > 1:07:16"if they've not paid you this money?"
1:07:16 > 1:07:19I said, "Cos the simple fact, I still have a film,
1:07:19 > 1:07:24"it still needs to be sold, it still needs all three of our signatures,
1:07:24 > 1:07:27"so I need to talk to them to sell this film,
1:07:27 > 1:07:30"so once the film's sold, do what you like."
1:07:30 > 1:07:34Paul Knight was very reluctant to give evidence
1:07:34 > 1:07:37and we had to tread a certain path in order to get him into court.
1:07:37 > 1:07:39And then out of the blue, this letter arrives
1:07:39 > 1:07:41and it's from the taxman
1:07:41 > 1:07:47and it turns out that they've gone back eight years of my tax records
1:07:47 > 1:07:50to try and see if I hadn't paid tax
1:07:50 > 1:07:53or they had something incriminating that they could bargain,
1:07:53 > 1:07:56you know, "We'll oversee this if you give us the statement."
1:07:56 > 1:07:58Rubbish.
1:07:58 > 1:08:00Absolute rubbish. Rubbish.
1:08:00 > 1:08:04Once he recognised what he would get out of being in court
1:08:04 > 1:08:06and the publicity, he cooperated.
1:08:07 > 1:08:10If you've done something wrong, again...
1:08:10 > 1:08:14Hey, you know, you've done something wrong, you've done something wrong. We all do something wrong.
1:08:14 > 1:08:18To continue to do something wrong with the same people,
1:08:18 > 1:08:21it's not even you're making the same mistake with different people,
1:08:21 > 1:08:22you're doing it with the same people,
1:08:22 > 1:08:25you kind of deserve what's coming your way,
1:08:25 > 1:08:27and that's the way I saw it in the end,
1:08:27 > 1:08:31and I even tried to tell them, you know, "Get your defence in order,
1:08:31 > 1:08:33"this is the evidence I'm going to be giving."
1:08:33 > 1:08:36Didn't want to heed that little tip.
1:08:36 > 1:08:39And obviously I said to Aoife,
1:08:39 > 1:08:43who I knew was still in contact with Bashar, "Bashar pays me my money,
1:08:43 > 1:08:46"perhaps my hard drive needs to be formatted
1:08:46 > 1:08:49"and every e-mail and everything disappears,"
1:08:49 > 1:08:51but he didn't want to pay me my money,
1:08:51 > 1:08:55so it's like, "Well, you're still not showing me any loyalty,
1:08:55 > 1:08:56"you're not showing me anything,
1:08:56 > 1:08:58"I don't owe you anything - well, sod you."
1:08:58 > 1:09:01And that's why I decided to give the statement in the end.
1:09:03 > 1:09:08In the autumn of 2012, there were at that time
1:09:08 > 1:09:12about 7,000 pages of evidence that had been served.
1:09:12 > 1:09:16By the time we arrived at trial, we were up to about 20,000 pages,
1:09:16 > 1:09:21so over the course of the autumn and January of 2013,
1:09:21 > 1:09:25we served about another 13,000 pages of evidence,
1:09:25 > 1:09:32so the offices were extremely busy in that final quarter of 2012.
1:09:39 > 1:09:40On the eve of the trial,
1:09:40 > 1:09:43both sides were confident of victory.
1:09:43 > 1:09:46HMRC and their lawyers had a pile of invoices
1:09:46 > 1:09:48for work that hadn't been done.
1:09:49 > 1:09:52Bashar and Aoife had three feature films in the can
1:09:52 > 1:09:56to prove they were bona fide film producers. Honest, guv!
1:09:57 > 1:09:59INDISTINCT REPORTING
1:10:03 > 1:10:06The trial was eye-opening because obviously,
1:10:06 > 1:10:09HMRC had a lot more background knowledge
1:10:09 > 1:10:12of what was physically happening than I ever did,
1:10:12 > 1:10:15and I learned more about what the situation was,
1:10:15 > 1:10:19but at that stage it was too late. I was a defendant.
1:10:19 > 1:10:22I asked my legal team what was their advice,
1:10:22 > 1:10:25they've been in court many times, I haven't,
1:10:25 > 1:10:29and constantly their professional advice would be that,
1:10:29 > 1:10:31"You don't need to prove your innocence,
1:10:31 > 1:10:33"they've got to prove your guilt,
1:10:33 > 1:10:37"so therefore, your best form of defence is by saying nothing
1:10:37 > 1:10:39"because there's insufficient evidence
1:10:39 > 1:10:42"for you to ever be convicted of this crime."
1:10:44 > 1:10:48But then came the bombshell - not a blonde one this time.
1:10:50 > 1:10:53Aoife Madden, you are jointly charged with Bashar Al-Issa,
1:10:53 > 1:10:58Tariq Hassan, Osama Al Baghdady and Ian Sherwood
1:10:58 > 1:11:01with conspiracy to cheat the revenue.
1:11:01 > 1:11:05Aoife Madden, do you plead guilty or not guilty?
1:11:06 > 1:11:07Guilty, your honour.
1:11:09 > 1:11:11Her counsel contacted me about a week before
1:11:11 > 1:11:13to say she would be pleading guilty.
1:11:13 > 1:11:17I think pretty early on, she would have realised that there was no way
1:11:17 > 1:11:21that the budget was of the £20 million that was being portrayed
1:11:21 > 1:11:26to the British film industry, the BFI and to HMRC,
1:11:26 > 1:11:31so from that point on, she lent herself fully to the conspiracy.
1:11:31 > 1:11:34Come on, Tess. Help yourself out.
1:11:34 > 1:11:38We've got you linked to the Zafira, it's you on the CCTV footage
1:11:38 > 1:11:41and you're the one with the access to all the vehicles.
1:11:41 > 1:11:44Why should we assume anyone else had anything to do with it?
1:11:46 > 1:11:52Maeve was also arrested and Aoife was very concerned about her.
1:11:52 > 1:11:55There were documents that were linked to Maeve.
1:11:55 > 1:11:58The difficulty was, it doesn't follow because there were
1:11:58 > 1:12:01documents linked to her that they were necessarily produced by her.
1:12:01 > 1:12:04I was very conscious, for example, during the trial
1:12:04 > 1:12:07that we relied very heavily on evidence on Skype logs,
1:12:07 > 1:12:09so people communicating on Skype.
1:12:09 > 1:12:12Now, one of the Skype identities, from memory,
1:12:12 > 1:12:16was Maeve Madden's Skype identity. It was patent, however, that
1:12:16 > 1:12:19that was in fact being used by Bashar AlIssa.
1:12:19 > 1:12:23So Maeve features in the evidence
1:12:23 > 1:12:24but a decision was made that
1:12:24 > 1:12:28there was no reasonable prospect of conviction in relation to Maeve.
1:12:28 > 1:12:30So...
1:12:31 > 1:12:34If you didn't kill Hill, who did?
1:12:40 > 1:12:42Aoife had thrown in the towel.
1:12:42 > 1:12:46Maeve was in the clear, but there were still four men in the dock
1:12:46 > 1:12:50and a couple more surprises in store.
1:12:50 > 1:12:54Three of the remaining defendants decided to refuse to give evidence -
1:12:54 > 1:12:57The book-keeper, Tariq Hassan,
1:12:57 > 1:13:01the director of AB Productions, Osama Al Baghdady,
1:13:01 > 1:13:04and architect Ian Sherwood.
1:13:04 > 1:13:08I was embroiled into something, I didn't feel it was necessary
1:13:08 > 1:13:11for me to ask questions of what was happening.
1:13:11 > 1:13:13I was also then being sent reports,
1:13:13 > 1:13:17I was being sent some filming information - again, as a layperson
1:13:17 > 1:13:21to the film industry - that looked to me as if a film was being made.
1:13:21 > 1:13:24Yes, OK, the question can be put to me,
1:13:24 > 1:13:27why didn't I look at the size of the invoices?
1:13:27 > 1:13:31But I had no reason to look at them. I wasn't a director of the company,
1:13:31 > 1:13:37I was very busy trying to keep my architectural practice afloat.
1:13:37 > 1:13:42Mr Sherwood was an architect of some renown in Manchester
1:13:42 > 1:13:48and he agreed to have his office used and be a director of a business
1:13:48 > 1:13:51that was completely and utterly fraudulent.
1:13:53 > 1:13:57Even with Aoife's guilty plea, and all the evidence against him,
1:13:57 > 1:13:59Bashar AlIssa might have been in with a chance.
1:14:01 > 1:14:04It's notoriously hard for Her Majesty to win fraud cases
1:14:04 > 1:14:06because the crime is so complicated.
1:14:07 > 1:14:10If Bashar could convince the jury
1:14:10 > 1:14:13that A Landscape of Lies was the £19.6 million blockbuster
1:14:13 > 1:14:16he'd always intended to make, it might look like
1:14:16 > 1:14:20he'd just got a little ahead of himself with his accounts.
1:14:20 > 1:14:24Unfortunately for him, no-one wanted to watch his film at court.
1:14:25 > 1:14:28They were only interested in what it cost
1:14:28 > 1:14:31and he'd asked Paul Knight to handle all the payments.
1:14:32 > 1:14:35Paul Knight was very useful to our case,
1:14:35 > 1:14:37because it did highlight the fact
1:14:37 > 1:14:41that A Landscape of Lives was going to be £19 million,
1:14:41 > 1:14:45yet A Landscape of Lies was £60,000, £80,000.
1:14:45 > 1:14:47It was a good afternoon for me,
1:14:47 > 1:14:53and then to find out that my input, my evidence,
1:14:53 > 1:14:55if you like, my testimony,
1:14:55 > 1:14:58was a nail in that guy's coffin and not just words
1:14:58 > 1:15:01made it even sweeter, to be honest with you,
1:15:01 > 1:15:05cos despite what they all got up to, my issues are more with Bashar.
1:15:05 > 1:15:09He was the guy that made promises, he was the guy who didn't pay me.
1:15:09 > 1:15:11I don't care about the others.
1:15:11 > 1:15:14My handshake was with Bashar and he spat on that handshake,
1:15:14 > 1:15:17and where I come from, handshakes mean something.
1:15:17 > 1:15:20You bring it back to the logic of it, don't you?
1:15:20 > 1:15:23Look, if you have a £20 million budget,
1:15:23 > 1:15:26£20 million is a lot of money in anybody's world.
1:15:26 > 1:15:29If you are, for your first project, going to be making a film
1:15:29 > 1:15:33and spending 20 million, Mr Issa, why on earth would you
1:15:33 > 1:15:37pick people who had no experience whatsoever in the film industry?
1:15:37 > 1:15:40Aoife has some experience as an actress
1:15:40 > 1:15:45but most recently she had just done a PGCE at East London University
1:15:45 > 1:15:47and was due to become a primary teacher.
1:15:47 > 1:15:50This was not a woman with a background in film.
1:15:50 > 1:15:53The production company, AB Productions,
1:15:53 > 1:15:58who were effectively the film production company going to be
1:15:58 > 1:16:02making the claims for film tax credit and doing the work,
1:16:02 > 1:16:07were run by a former construction engineer or manager
1:16:07 > 1:16:12linked to Issa in Manchester, and an architect.
1:16:12 > 1:16:16- Who by their own admissions both said they knew nothing about film. - Nothing about film at all.
1:16:16 > 1:16:19So why on earth would you do that?
1:16:19 > 1:16:23Other than it gave him control over what was going on.
1:16:24 > 1:16:26Bashar always wanted to make films,
1:16:26 > 1:16:31but he misunderstood what he could and couldn't do.
1:16:31 > 1:16:36I don't see any criminal activity in these people at all.
1:16:36 > 1:16:38They were inept.
1:16:38 > 1:16:41What they've done can be misconstrued.
1:16:46 > 1:16:49The judge threw the book at our unlucky film-makers,
1:16:49 > 1:16:52or should I say, film fakers?
1:16:52 > 1:16:55Ian Sherwood got three-and-a-half years,
1:16:55 > 1:16:59Tariq Hassan and Osama Al Baghdady were given four each.
1:17:00 > 1:17:03Aoife was sentenced to four years and eight months,
1:17:03 > 1:17:08and Bashar, as usual, came out on top with six-and-a-half years.
1:17:10 > 1:17:13I honestly believe he thought he was going to get off.
1:17:13 > 1:17:15I think he believes his own lies
1:17:15 > 1:17:18to the point where he thought he was untouchable.
1:17:18 > 1:17:20I felt Aoife was bemused.
1:17:20 > 1:17:23She didn't really understand what was going on.
1:17:23 > 1:17:26When she went into the court on the day of sentencing,
1:17:26 > 1:17:30she was smiling for the cameras, and when she was given four years
1:17:30 > 1:17:33and eight months, she was smiling again, and I was just thinking,
1:17:33 > 1:17:36"Do you understand what's just happened to you?"
1:17:36 > 1:17:39But she didn't, you know, it was bizarre.
1:17:39 > 1:17:41You think back on it, you see all the red flags,
1:17:41 > 1:17:47you see all those warning signs, and you were blinded by your own...
1:17:47 > 1:17:50by your own need to succeed.
1:17:50 > 1:17:55I just wish I'd got some of the money that they did, because...
1:17:55 > 1:17:57Yeah, they made a lot more money than I did.
1:17:57 > 1:18:00I think it's kind of given me more business smarts.
1:18:00 > 1:18:05I'm more inclined to analyse things a bit better in my professional life
1:18:05 > 1:18:09and not be so dreamy, you know,
1:18:09 > 1:18:11not think that people are just going to write to me
1:18:11 > 1:18:14and offer me amazing things. It's just not going to happen!
1:18:14 > 1:18:18It hurts because you try so hard, you know, to...
1:18:20 > 1:18:24..to make your dreams come true, and then...
1:18:24 > 1:18:28then they're smiling in your face and they're laughing at you.
1:18:28 > 1:18:31Bashar didn't apologise to anybody
1:18:31 > 1:18:34because he didn't feel as though he'd done anything wrong.
1:18:34 > 1:18:38He, as an individual, has physically ruined my life
1:18:38 > 1:18:44because I built the business that I was involved in on trust.
1:18:44 > 1:18:48And clearly, I'm not now in a position of that trust.
1:18:48 > 1:18:53One man alone felt he could extract something positive from the situation.
1:18:53 > 1:18:57Paul Knight was trying to get the film released as his property
1:18:57 > 1:18:58because he claimed that
1:18:58 > 1:19:02because Bashar hadn't paid him the balance of the money, he owned it.
1:19:02 > 1:19:04When Paul Knight left the court,
1:19:04 > 1:19:09he stood on the steps outside and gave an interview to Sky Television.
1:19:09 > 1:19:12The upside is, as the last man standing,
1:19:12 > 1:19:15the rights to the film is now hopefully all mine
1:19:15 > 1:19:18and so now I'll be looking to put it out for distribution
1:19:18 > 1:19:20by the end of this year.
1:19:20 > 1:19:23It was meant to kick-start me. All it did was kick me in the nuts.
1:19:23 > 1:19:30The upside is that any legit producers in the future know that
1:19:30 > 1:19:32anything my name is attached to,
1:19:32 > 1:19:35the taxman is going to be triple checking every piece of paperwork,
1:19:35 > 1:19:37so if they want someone on their board
1:19:37 > 1:19:39that's going to make an honest film,
1:19:39 > 1:19:43then I've got to be their number one choice.
1:19:43 > 1:19:47Landscape of Lies? I'll have to have a look at it soon, yeah.
1:19:47 > 1:19:51I haven't seen it yet, so I can't say any judgment on that.
1:19:51 > 1:19:57- I'd like to see it, yeah. - You'll like the realism of it.- Yeah.
1:19:57 > 1:19:58Is it on release?
1:19:58 > 1:20:01- Well, not at the moment cos of the court case.- Oh, right.
1:20:01 > 1:20:04- It's not on release cos of the court case.- Oh, I see.
1:20:09 > 1:20:12It was a relatively new tax break
1:20:12 > 1:20:15and somebody looked at how to attack it.
1:20:15 > 1:20:18Bashar AlIssa just happened to be one of the first
1:20:18 > 1:20:22and others have followed and also been convicted.
1:20:22 > 1:20:26For me, the greatest chutzpah, perhaps, in this whole thing
1:20:26 > 1:20:28was to set up this project
1:20:28 > 1:20:31to be making a film called Landscape of Lives
1:20:31 > 1:20:34and then, post their arrests, to make a film
1:20:34 > 1:20:37but to change the title to Landscape of Lies.
1:20:37 > 1:20:41Now, I think anybody would have to appreciate there's both chutzpah
1:20:41 > 1:20:46and bravado and a finger up, essentially, at the Crown
1:20:46 > 1:20:48in something like that.
1:20:55 > 1:20:58Ta-dah! That's it. What do you think?
1:21:05 > 1:21:09It's been educational, it's been interesting. Please keep on watching
1:21:09 > 1:21:14because there's many, many, many more interviews to come
1:21:14 > 1:21:16and I will...
1:21:16 > 1:21:20I'll leave you there, for you to see what's coming up soon.
1:21:27 > 1:21:30The film industry is a weird game in this country.
1:21:30 > 1:21:32I call it the film industry -
1:21:32 > 1:21:34it's not, you know, it's not an industry in Britain.
1:21:34 > 1:21:36It's not a business like it is in America.
1:21:36 > 1:21:38Los Angeles is a city that's built to make movies.
1:21:38 > 1:21:41London is this weird mix of hobbyists and lunatics.
1:21:44 > 1:21:48And that brings me to the end of my story.
1:21:48 > 1:21:50Why did I tell it to you?
1:21:51 > 1:21:53As a lesson, of course,
1:21:53 > 1:21:56about how not to play it if you come to my city.
1:21:56 > 1:22:00But also, perhaps, to show you some of the subtler shades
1:22:00 > 1:22:02that make up the rainbow of crime.
1:22:03 > 1:22:05Of course, the court took the view
1:22:05 > 1:22:09that these people were criminals who had planned it all along.
1:22:11 > 1:22:15But the word "criminal" implies a certain level of sophistication.
1:22:17 > 1:22:21Maybe I've got too much respect for the real deal,
1:22:21 > 1:22:26but to me, this lot were nothing but a bunch of chancers.