Usually when I start listening to a true-life podcast, I don’t know how it ends. That’s not the case with The Smuggler, BBC Radio 4’s new investigation into people smuggling. Across ten episodes, its Orwell Prize-winning presenter, Annabel Deas, tells the story of ‘Nick’, on the face of it an unlikely protagonist. Nick is white, English and a former soldier in the British Army. He’s also a friend of mine. We met in jail in 2021 and have stayed in contact ever since. So I know Nick’s story. I even know how it ends. Despite all this, I found myself absolutely gripped by The Smuggler.
This is partly because it’s such a fascinating, and timely, topic. Migration is rarely out of the news. Keir Starmer keeps promising to ‘smash the gangs’ and ‘stop the boats’. But how do the gangs work, and how are people actually smuggled across the Channel? On the podcast, Nick shares the details of how and when he brought migrants over and how his methods changed over time, and reveals shocking gaps in Britain’s border security. It’s hard to see what the police or Border Force can do when the smugglers are so inventive and the rewards for making it to the UK so high.
In prison Nick talked to me about crossing the Channel at night. His eyes wide, he grinned as he described the elation of evading his opponents and winning the secret game
The evident pleasure Nick took in people smuggling as an adventure, or game, is fascinating. Why people commit crimes is often complex. Criminals, like all of us, are often drawn to ‘jobs’ which satisfy some deeper emotional need. It’s rarely just about the money, and Deas has done well to draw out the complexity of Nick’s character. When we were both in prison Nick once talked to me about crossing the Channel at night. His eyes wide, he grinned as he described the elation of evading his opponents and winning the secret game.
Nick would have made a fantastic series on his own, but he isn’t the only character in The Smuggler. Deas has managed to find and interview ‘Trevor’, a senior police officer who investigated the people-smuggling gangs at the time Nick was operating. Learning about the other side of this shadowy battle, and the deep involvement of gangs in the smuggling business, intrigued me. In every illicit trade, be it drugs, arms or people, the rewards are so great that organised crime always takes over. Throughout the podcast, Neil Churchill’s sound design, with sloshing water, tannoys and growling diesel engines, vividly evokes the dirty, risky business of crossing the Channel at night in small boats.
Nick is back in prison now, not because of people smuggling, and has been having a tough time. I know he still grapples with trauma and guilt about many choices he’s made. I hope he can find a way to heal and change. He calls me from time to time. Usually we chat about jail, the news and rugby. But when we next speak I’ll tell him about Trevor. I’m sure Nick will be intrigued to hear the voice of his opponent, the man who hunted him.
The Smuggler is fair to Nick. It shows his charm and his darkness, and doesn’t shy away from discussing the crimes he’s committed and the harm he’s done. It’s a remarkably raw and honest work, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. I know how Nick’s story ends. It’s absolutely worth your time.
Shadow World: The Smuggler starts on BBC Radio 4 on Monday 26 May at 1.45 p.m.
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