Arthur: Godfather of the North

The alleged Quality Street Gang rose to power in Manchester in the late 1970s and became one of the UK's most notorious groups. They were described as classic anti-hero figures: faces who owned pubs and clubs, car pitches, carpet shops and furniture stores; homespun celebrities, popular among both Utd and City players.

Thin Lizzy were said to have wrote 'The Boys Are Back In Town' about key members, referencing the club, Dino's Bar & Grill, the gang frequented.

The name Quality Street Gang, the moniker some of the gang were given, was born from an advert for the Christmas-favourite chocolates, featuring a ‘sweet bunch of characters’.

You never knew what sweet you were going to get out of the box.

In print they were referred to as 'Damon Runyon-esque' figures, separating fact from myth about them 'all but impossible'.

By the 90s, the police could no longer ignore the rumour that beneath the schmaltz they were in fact 'a malevolent octopus that manipulated rackets in Manchester and beyond for thirty years'.

New police powers were granted and a co-ordinated attempt to crack serious organised crime in the UK was underway, with the top 100 criminals targeted. At No 1 was Arthur. His city centre scrapyard had folkloric status. You could buy anything from soap powder to diamonds.

As a scrap dealer, he was known as one the best suppliers of reconditioned engines in the country. In Godfather of the North, Arthur tells his side of the story for the first time.

Labelled by Freddie Foreman as his Northern opposite, famously calling him the 'Freddie Foreman of the North', Arthur takes us deep inside 'Operation Bluebell', the six-month undercover police operation on him and his yard.

It resulted in a lengthy prison sentence as a Category A prisoner.

Arthur to this day protests his innocence. His version of what happened is as surprising as it is brutally frank.

Godfather of the North is an honest and moving account of Arthur's life.