Main content

Episode 3

Toby Jones stars as a corrupt politician and financier in GF Newman's powerful series. While waiting for a visit in prison from Leah, Brian receives some devastating news.

It's now 2001 and Brian Oldman is still in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

He found a man in jail able to prove his innocence - but that man was soon discovered dead in his cell. He suspects that Joseph Oldman, now Sir Joseph Olinska MP, organised the killing.

In this final series, taking us to 2008, Joseph Olinska gets ever more involved in New Labour, while Brian Oldman becomes a vegan and studies law in jail in a bid to win justice for himself. Tony Wednesday continues to work behind the scenes for Sir Joseph at the same time as moving ever further up the ranks of the police force.

GF Newman's The Corrupted weaves fiction with real characters from history, following the fortunes of the Oldman/Olinska family - from small-time business and opportunistic petty crime, through gang rivalries, to their entanglement in the highest echelons of society. It's the tale of a nexus of crime, business and politics that’s woven through the fabric of 20th and 21st century greed, as even those with hitherto good intentions are sucked into a web of corruption.

Whose fortunes will prosper? Who will get their just deserts?

Joey Oldman, an uneducated Jewish child immigrant from Russia, has a natural instinct for business and a love of money - coupled with a knack for acquiring it. His first wife Cath is as ruthless in both the pursuit of money and the protection of her son, Brian. Joey built his empire with the help of a corrupt bank manager in the 1950s, starting with small greengrocer shops before moving into tertiary banking and property development, dealing with many corrupt policemen on the way - and befriending Lord Goodman, Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair. Joseph now helps New Labour with their finances, while continuing to invest heavily in Russia, the US and a pharmaceutical company specialising in cancer drugs.

The characters are based on GF Newman's novels.

CAST
Sir Joseph - Toby Jones
Brian - Joe Armstrong
Tony Wednesday - Alec Newman
Sonia Hope/ Emma - Sarah Lambie
Catherine - Isabella Urbanowicz
Anatoly Popov/ Clive Bunter - Matthew Marsh
Leah - Jasmine Hyde
Margaret - Flora - Montgomery
PO Rogers - Paul Kemp
Pongo - David Ajao
Jeremy Corbyn - Christopher Harper
Julian Tyrwhitt - Jonathan Tafler
Tony Blair - Nigel Cooke
DAC Henderson - Nicholas Murchie
DCS Redvers - Arty Froushan
Mrs Jinks - Suzan Sylvester
Hamid Afzal - Akbar Kurtha
Magistrate - Nick Sampson

Produced and directed by Clive Brill
A Brill production for ±«Óãtv Radio 4

Available now

44 minutes

Last on

Sat 28 Oct 2023 21:00

Broadcasts

  • Wed 12 May 2021 14:15
  • Sat 28 Oct 2023 21:00