Shadow World

By BBC Radio 4Society & Culture Documentary True Crime

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Typical duration
15 min
per episode

Based on Podcast App listening data

Shadow World episodes

July 16, 2025 The Grave Robbers: 2. Strangers in the Street
Fake wills, stolen identities and cannabis farms - Sue Mitchell’s investigation gathers pace as she exposes how criminals are stripping the estates of the dead , denying rightful heirs their inheritance.
32 min
July 05, 2025 The Grave Robbers: 1. My Dear Friend
Two sisters, set to receive a surprise life-changing inheritance, have it snatched away by a stranger. As Sue Mitchell investigates, she reveals how fake wills are being used to strip the estates of the dead and deny rightful heirs what is rightfully theirs.
This new narrative podcast from multi award winning investigative reporter Sue Mitchell (Intrigue: To Catch a Scorpion, Million Dollar Lover) reveals a crime that’s gone unreported until now and a system that is struggling to stop it.
35 min
July 03, 2025 The Grave Robbers: Trailer
It should be impossible to steal a home, but Sue Mitchell reveals it's all too easy. The multi-award winning investigative journalist (Intrigue: To Catch a Scorpion, Million Dollar Lover) is on the trail of an East European crime group using forged wills to 'take' the homes of the dead , stealing millions from rightful heirs and denying the Government valuable tax revenue. Sue Mitchell starts her original investigation when two sisters are denied their rightful inheritance following the death of their estranged aunt, but soon finds herself tracking a gang that are not only conning people out of property but also linked to cannabis farms, money laundering and the sale of UK work visas. Over five episodes, she goes in search of the gang members behind this elaborate scam and web of false companies, exposing the shortfalls of a creaking system which places countless others at risk. Shadow World: Gripping stories from the shadows - BBC investigations from across the UK.
3 min
May 24, 2025 The Smuggler: 10. A Hidden Network
Journalist Annabel Deas speaks to experts who fear Nick’s routes and methods are a back door for other people smugglers
15 min
May 24, 2025 The Smuggler: 9. The Arrest
Nick arrives in Kent with four Vietnamese migrants on his boat. But he’s met by police who arrest him for people smuggling.
15 min
May 24, 2025 The Smuggler: 8. The Boat Theory
After a near escape, Nick vows to never smuggle again. Meanwhile, police build a theory that Nick is smuggling Vietnamese migrants to work on cannabis farms.
15 min
May 24, 2025 The Smuggler: 7. A Dangerous Journey
Nick evades the police in France. But his boat is broken and taking on water. Meanwhile, journalist Annabel Deas hears about the dangerous journeys taken by Vietnamese migrants.
Presenter - Annabel Deas
Producer - Hayley Mortimer
Sound design - Neil Churchill
Researcher - Isabel Kimbrey
Editor - Matt Willis
Commissioning Executive - Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor - Dan Clarke
Series music - Ambit Sound
15 min
May 24, 2025 The Smuggler: 6. The Vietnamese Connection
Nick is paid thousands of pounds to bring Vietnamese migrants into the UK. But at what cost?
15 min
May 24, 2025 The Smuggler: 5. The Crossing
Nick buys a boat and searches for a new smuggling route across the English Channel.
15 min
May 24, 2025 The Smuggler: 4. The Final Border
After serving time in prison for people smuggling, Nick becomes an informant, providing information about the Albanian gang.
15 min

About Shadow World

From the publisher's feed

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?