Young Winstone

Book excerpt: Ray Winstone's amazing talent for bringing out the humanity buried inside his often brutal screen characters - violent offender in 'Scum', wife-beater in 'Nil by mouth', retired blagger in 'Sexy beast' - has made him one of the most charismatic actors of his generation. But how do these uncompromising and often haunting performances square with his off-duty reputation as the ultimate salt-of-the-earth diamond geezer? The answer lies in the East End of his youth: the home of gangsters, bank robbers, Bobby Moore, and family and friends who looked out for each other ...