Gary Bell

Gary Bell was born and raised the son of a Nottinghamshire coal miner and, in spite of his dream of becoming a professional footballer with Nottingham Forest, he left school at 16 with absolutely no qualifications and fulfilled his destiny in following his father into mining - but only for three days. Thereafter, amongst a plethora of unsuccessful jobs, he became an apprentice mechanic, a fork lift truck driver, a fireman, a pork pie factory worker and an apprentice bricklayer. He then spent a little time in prison before striking out to make his fame and fortune in Europe. A few weeks later he was homeless, spending the next two years as a penniless international vagrant. As can be seen from the biographic photo, he has kept himself in shape and remains a talented footballer. From that granite foundation he went from penniless, criminal vagrant to one of England's leading criminal barristers. He took silk in 2012 and writes for a number of publications (including the Spectator), presented his own TV show on BBC1 (the Legalizer), has now written three books and was Midlands' stand up comedian of the year in 2007. Beyond Reasonable Doubt has been optioned by the BBC with the aim of turning it into a mini-series.