''McMafia'' is a British

crime drama Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and comb ...

television series created by Hossein Amini and James Watkins, and directed by Watkins. It is inspired by the book '' McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld'' by journalist Misha Glenny (2008). The series stars James Norton as Alex Godman, the British-raised son of a

Russian mafia Russian organized crime or Russian mafia (, ), otherwise known as Bratva (), is a collective of various organized crime elements originating in the former Soviet Union. The initialism OPG is Organized Criminal (''prestupnaya'' in Russian) ...

boss living in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

whose father is trying to escape from the world of organised crime. It is co-produced by BBC,

AMC Networks AMC Networks Inc. is an American entertainment company headquartered in 11 Penn Plaza, New York. AMC Networks owns and operates the eponymous cable channel and its siblings, IFC, We TV, and Sundance TV; the art house movie theater IFC ...

, and Cuba Pictures. It premiered in the United Kingdom on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

on 1 January 2018, and in the United States on AMC on 26 February 2018.

Cast

Main cast

* James Norton as Alex Godman *

David Strathairn David Russell Strathairn (; born January 26, 1949) is an American actor. Known for his leading roles on stage and screen, he has often portrayed historical figures such as Edward R. Murrow, J. Robert Oppenheimer, William H. Seward, and John Do ...

as Semiyon Kleiman, Russian-Israeli businessman * Juliet Rylance as Rebecca Harper, Alex's fiancée *

Merab Ninidze Merab Ninidze ( ka, მერაბ ნინიძე; born 3 November 1965) is a Georgian actor. In the English-speaking world, he is best known for the roles of Walter Redlich in ''Nowhere in Africa'' and Oleg Penkovsky in '' The Courier''. ...

as Vadim Kalyagin, powerful member of the Russian mafia * Aleksey Serebryakov as Dimitri Godman, Alex's father *

Maria Shukshina Maria Vasilievna Shukshina (russian: Мари́я Васи́льевна Шукшина́; born 27 May 1967) is a Russian actress. Her film credits include '' Burnt by the Sun 2: Exodus'' (2010), ''Bury Me Behind the Baseboard'' (2009) and '' Am ...

as Oksana Godman, Alex's mother * Angel Woodland as Katya Godman, Alex's sister *

David Dencik Karl David Sebastian Dencik (born 31 October 1974) is a Danish-Swedish actor. He has acted in both Swedish and Danish films, and has also had major roles in English-language films and series including '' Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy'' (2011), ''The ...

as Boris Godman, Alex's uncle *

Oshri Cohen Oshri Cohen ( he, אושרי כהן; born 11 January 1984) is an Israeli actor. Career In addition to television roles, Cohen has performed in films such as ''Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi'' and ''Campfire (film), Campfire''. In 2007 Cohen starred ...

as Joseph, Israeli bodyguard * Sofia Lebedeva as Lyudmilla Nikolayeva, beauty therapist *

Caio Blat Caio Blat de Oliveira (born 2 June 1980) is a Brazilian actor. Biography Blat was born in São Paulo, Brazil. He studied law at the University of São Paulo, the largest and one of the most prestigious universities in Brazil, but dropped out be ...

as Antonio Mendez *

Kirill Pirogov Kirill Alfredovich Pirogov (russian: Кирилл Альфредович Пирогов; born 4 September 1973) is a Russian film and theatre actor and composer. He has appeared in more than twenty films since 1995. In 2005 he was made an Honour ...

as Ilya Fedorov *

Nawazuddin Siddiqui Nawazuddin Siddiqui (; born 19 May 1974) is an Indian actor known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is an alumnus of the National School of Drama. Siddiqui's feature film debut was alongside director Prashant Bhargava in ''Patang'' (2012). He ga ...

as Dilly Mahmood, Indian business partner *

Karel Roden Karel Roden (born 18 May 1962) is a Czech actor, popularly known for his roles in ''Hellboy'' and '' The Bourne Supremacy'', and his voice work in ''Grand Theft Auto IV''. Life and career Roden followed his father and grandfather into acting. ...

as Karel Benes

Recurring cast

* Yuval Scharf as Tanya * Anna Levanova as Natasha * Clifford Samuel as Femi * Maria Mashkova as Masha * Kemi-Bo Jacobs as Karin *

Atul Kale Atul Kale is an Indian actor, singer, musician and director. He directed ''Matichya Chuli'', '' De Dhakka'' and ''Shahanpan Dega Deva''. He has won MATA Sanman and Zee Gaurav awards for his singing, music direction, acting and directing. Early ...

as Benny Chopra * Evgeni Golan as Marat * Eve Parmiter as Jennifer * Tim Ahern as Sydney Bloom * Ellie Piercy as Sandrine *

Danila Kozlovsky Danila Valeryevich Kozlovsky (russian: link=no, Данила Валерьевич Козловский; born 3 May 1985) is a Russian actor and director. Biography Early life and career Danila Kozlovsky was born in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet ...

as Grigory Mishin * Alexander Dyachenko as Oleg * Fernando Cayo as Guillermo Alegre *

Lidiya Fedoseyeva-Shukshina Lidiya Nikolayevna Fedoseyeva-Shukshina (russian: Лидия Николаевна Федосеева-Шукшина; born 25 September 1938, in Leningrad) is a Russian actress and widow of writer, actor and director Vasily Shukshin. She is the mo ...

as Vadim Kalyagin's mother

Production

''McMafia'' was inspired by journalist Misha Glenny's non-fiction book ''McMafia: A Journey Through the Global Criminal Underworld'', published in 2008. The series took a few stories from Glenny's book, which documents various mafia organisations thriving around the world today. The series was created by Hossein Amini and James Watkins, and is a co-production of the BBC, AMC, and Cuba Pictures, in association with

Twickenham Studios Twickenham Studios (formerly known as Twickenham Film Studios) is a film studio in St Margarets, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, that is used by various motion picture and television companies. It was established in 1913 by Ralph ...

. The BBC announced the series in October 2015. In April 2016, it was announced that James Norton had been cast in the lead role of Alex Godman and that co-creator Watkins would direct all eight episodes. Additional casting, including

and Aleksey Serebryakov as Alex's parents, and

as a shady Israeli businessman, was announced in November 2016. In addition to Amini and Watkins, David Farr,

Peter Harness Peter Harness (born 1976) is an English playwright, screenwriter and actor. He has contributed to programmes such as ''McMafia'', '' City of Vice'' and '' Case Histories''. Early life He grew up in Hornsea, East Yorkshire and attended Oriel Col ...

, and Laurence Coriat co-wrote the series. Filming locations included

Zagreb Zagreb ( , , , ) is the capital and largest city of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb stands near the international border between Croatia and Slov ...

Split Split(s) or The Split may refer to: Places * Split, Croatia, the largest coastal city in Croatia * Split Island, Canada, an island in the Hudson Bay * Split Island, Falkland Islands * Split Island, Fiji, better known as Hạfliua Arts, entertai ...

Opatija Opatija (; it, Abbazia; german: Sankt Jakobi) is a List of cities and towns in Croatia, town and a municipality in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County in western Croatia. The traditional seaside resort on the Kvarner Gulf is known for its Mediterranean ...

Primošten Primošten (; it, Capocesto) is a village and municipality in Šibenik-Knin County, Croatia. It is situated in the south, between the cities of Šibenik and Trogir, on the Adriatic coast. Demographics The total population of the municipality is ...

Qatar Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it ...

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...

, Belgrade,

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

and

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

. The budget was several million pounds per episode.

Episodes

Reception

Lucy Mangan Lucy Katherine Mangan''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' (born 1974) is a British journalist and author. She is a columnist, features writer and TV critic for ''The Guardian''. A major part of her writing is related t ...

, writing for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' said that the show was "beautifully put together" and described the script as "a cut above average".

Planned second series

In 2018, BBC One announced that it had recommissioned the programme for an eight-part second series. In March 2022, it was reported that the planned second series had been cancelled,The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...