Big Breadwinner Hog

Synopsis

Big Breadwinner Hog is a British television thriller serial devised by Robin Chapman, produced by Granada TV and transmitted in eight parts, starting at 9.00pm on 11 April 1969 on the ITV network. It portrayed the ruthless rise through the criminal underworld of the trendy young London gangster Hogarth. He exploits the resources of a declining gangster, Ryan, to take over the dominant crime syndicate Scot-Yanks, controlled by the equally ruthless and manipulative Lennox. The key to Hogarth's success is knowledge of a murder arranged by Lennox, of which there is a crucial witness, Ackerman, a one-time private eye who has been blackmailed into working for Scot-Yanks, and bitterly resents Lennox as a consequence. The eight-part serial was widely condemned at the time for its amorality and violence. Its first episode featured a scene in which a jar of hydrochloric acid was thrown into a rival's face. "Barely minutes after the first episode was transmitted, the Granada TV switchboard was inundated" with viewers' complaints about the violence and the second episode was preceded by a Granada apology for the previous week's episode. Granada toned down some of the more violent aspects of later episodes but, despite this, viewer complaints continued and, from episode 5 onwards, some ITV regions moved transmission to a later timeslot; two ITV regions stopped transmission of the serial completely.