Line of Duty star Martin Compston’s “terrific” Glasgow-set crime drama is now streaming for free
Martin Compston may be best known for his roles on TV including Line of Duty and The Rig, but the Scottish actor has plenty of film projects to his name such as Mary Queen of Scots and The Aftermath.
One of his lesser known works is Gangster, a crime drama that was released in 2013 under the title of The Wee Man. Compston portrays real-life criminal Paul Ferris in the film, which depicts his rise in organised crime in Glasgow.
Written and directed by Ray Burdis, the film features Denis Lawson and John Hannah in supporting roles, and is currently available to stream for free in the UK having been added to Tubi. It’s also available on Prime Video, so you have another option there.
As per the logline, the crime drama is “based on the extraordinary and well-documented life-story of the reformed Glaswegian gangster”, and charts the way in which the “road to crime came as a reaction against the monsters of his youth”.
Though not widely reviewed by critics, Gangster was generally praised by viewers, with IMDb currently reporting a solid user rating of 6.1/10 from 2900 logs. On Rotten Tomatoes, the audience score is markedly lower at 44%.
“The characters study and description is flawless, even if the criminal schemes code is rather foreseeable, but I don’t care at all. I highly prefer this rise and fall topic,” wrote one user on IMDb as they called it “terrific”.
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“There’s no doubt that there is a great story here, and I did enjoy the movie because off its complicated, based-on-true-events style plot. But for a film in development for so long, you’d think there would be more success in other parts off its production,” opined another.
Another viewer was full of praise for Compston’s “great” performance as he “brings the film to life”, adding: “[It’s] a fairly absorbing movie dramatising the life of infamous Glaswegian Paul Ferris.”
Of course, Compston will reprise his role as Steve Arnott in the upcoming seventh season of Line of Duty, and the actor exclusively told Digital Spy that he was looking forward to reuniting with co-stars Vicky McClure and Adrian Dunbar.
“I just like Belfast, it’s a great city to film in and [me, McClure and Dunbar are] genuinely, really close pals… So getting to spend proper time with them again is a joy,” he told us in March.
Gangster is streaming now on Tubi and Prime Video.
