Is Stephen Graham ITV drama The Walk-In based on a true story?-Cydney Yeates-Entertainment – Metro

Stephen Grahahm stars in the ITV drama The Walk-In, which starts tonight (Picture: ITV)

The Walk-In is ITV’s new crime drama starring multi-award-winning actor and all-round national treasure Stephen Graham.

The first episode is set to premiere on Monday (October 3) and will air for five consecutive weeks.

The series has been described as an ‘explosive state-of-the-world’ show that explores some of the most critical and relevant issues of modern times including racism, freedom of speech, and terrorism.

Here’s everything you need to know about what The Walk-In is based on.

Is The Walk-In based on a true story?

The Walk-In is written by acclaimed screenwriter Jeff Pope and is based on a true story of how a Neo-Nazi plan to kill an MP was foiled by an inside man.

Stephen Graham takes on the leading role of activist Matthew Collins, a reformed Neo-Nazi, now working as a bona fide journalist for the anti-racist organisation, Hope Not Hate.

In his formative years, Collins was the South London organiser for the National Front, a volunteer for the British National Party’s head office, and a member of Combat 18, a neo-Nazi terrorist group.

Campaigner and activist Matthew Collins is played by Stephen Graham (Picture: Times Radio)

He took part in the 1993 Welling riots, after which he became a mole for the anti-fascist Searchlight magazine.

Collins was paid in book tokens for his role as an informant, until his role was exposed, forcing him into hiding in Australia from 1993 to 2003 with the assistance of Special Branch.

He later returned to Britain to make a new life for himself.

The Walk-In focuses on Collins and his work to stop the radicalisation of young white men before it begins. 

The series will air over the course of five consecutive weeks (Picture: ITV)

Viewers see Graham’s character identify a Far Right Neo-Nazi group marking itself out with a youthful clean-cut image, hell bent on creating race war.

His modus operandi is to infiltrate such organisations by running moles, or walk-ins, with the goal of publishing information online about their activities to expose and fracture them.  

In spite of repeated attempts, he wasn’t able to break into this particular group.

Consequently, they continued to grow in strength relatively unchecked until the horrific murder of an MP Jo Cox in 2016 brought their potential into sharp focus and they became the first Far Right organisation to be banned by the government since World War II.

Although the marches and the social media posts stopped, Collins knew the group would only have been driven underground and that he had probably lost all chance of getting information from within.

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That all changed one day in March 2017 when he received an email from someone claiming to be a member, a mole ready to talk about a horrific plan to murder a second MP. 

In real life, Collins managed Robbie Mullins, a mole in National Action, in foiling a plot to murder Labour MP Rosie Cooper in 2017.

The Walk-In airs tonight at 9pm on ITV.

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