SCRIPT

Part 3

THE GIANT AMERICAN CLUB CHAIN SPEARMINT RHINO, WAS PLOTTING TO TAKE-OVER BRITAIN WITH A HARD-EDGED TAKE ON NEW TYPE OF STRIPPING –TABLE DANCE.

Stringfellow

SPEARMINT RHINO’S OWNER JOHN GRAY, HAD UNLEASHED A DIRTY TRICKS CAMPAIGN, SENDING SPIES INTO PETER STRINGFELLOW’S CLUB.

Adrian Gatton

When Spearmint Rhino opened in London it was a huge threat to other club owners.

Spearmint Rhino was bigger, plusher, faster.

THE INDUSTRIAL SCALE OF THE AMERICAN GIANT NEEDED A BROADER MARKET. STRINGFELLOW’S ATTRACTED WEALTHY MEN.

Peter Stringfellow

They weren’t boys, they weren’t lads: they were businessmen and men.

NOW SPEARMINT RHINO’S MASS ADVERTISING NETTED A BIGGER PRIZE – THE LAD’S.

Maxim magazine flick thru

IN THE 90S A NEW WAVE OF BRITISH MAGAZINES HAD SOLD YOUNG MEN A DIET OF SPORT, DRINKING AND GLOSSY WOMEN.

Stringfellow ext.

Blackpool pier

SPEARMINT RHINO SAW THE CHANCE TO EXPAND. THEY WOULD HARVEST THE CHANGED ATTITUDE STRINGFELLOW HAD CULTIVATED AMONG THE RICH, TO SELL LAP DANCING TO MASSES.

Peter Stringfellow

Here comes the good old story, this is gunna go downmarket really fast.

Exteriors and posters of Spearmint rhino

Newspaper headline

JOHN GRAY OPENED SPEARMINT RHINO STRIP BARS IN EDGBASTON, UXBRIDGE, HARROWGATE, AND BIRMINGHAM CITY, FEEDING OFF THE FRENZY OF PUBLICITY ABOUT LAP DANCING.

Stills x 3 – leaflet fliers for table dance clubs

Pan up rear of girl doing naked table dance to face

THE DEMAND FROM BRITISH MEN FOR THE SEXUALLY-CHARGED ROUTINES APPEARED TO BE INSATIABLE. AND SPEARMINT RHINO HAMMERED HOME THE MESSAGE: THE ONLY WAY TO DO IT, IS TO DO IT FULLY NAKED.

Stringfellow talks among bikini girls

BUT STRINGFELLOW’S HAD A KNICKERS-ON POLICY.

Stringfellow

We weren’t nude. We were g- strings. They were nude.

MARK YOUNG

They were fully nude which was like a revelation in terms of our business, you know, were still ensconced in G-string.

THE CRUNCH CAME FOR PETER STRINGFELLOW ON VALENTINE’S DAY.

Mark Young u/c

It was the Valentine Angel night, it had always proved a very popular night.

Peter Stringfellow

That all fell to bits. Instantly.

Mark Young

That particular night we were empty, it was the dancers, we had every available dancer to us was working and er no customers. And then word started creeping back that there was a queue down Tottenham Court road to get into Spearmint Rhino.

AFTER HIS VALENTINE HUMILIATION STRINGFELLOW CALLED A MEETING, TO PLOT HOW-TO-GET-EVEN.

MARK YOUNG

This American impostor had stumbled on our patch and give us a slap upside head

Stringfellow

This is ruining the industry, you’ve let in, literally, the American pornography. That’s what you’ve done.

Mark Young

and we had war council the following day

We were going to champion the English side, if you like, of table dancing against the American juggernaut.

Stringfellow

America, they can do what they wanna do. This has got to stop.

STRINGFELLOW’S WAR COUNCIL CAME UP WITH A DARING, BUT SOMEWHAT FAMILIAR, IDEA.

Stringfellow

Spy girls. Girls

Alan Whitehead

If you want to know about how another club is operating the best way to do it would be to send a dancer in as a spy. They can glean all the information about how they are operating from the inside you can also then spot the weaknesses of a club.

AND SO STRINGFELLOW’S MAN MARK YOUNG, LAUNCHED ON A CLASSIC COLD WAR MISSION. HE WOULD INFILTRATE A FEMALE SPY INTO ENEMY HEADQUARTERS.

1960S TV AD

"Mum’s the word"

Mark young

We took decision to send a dancer undercover in there , probably the most un-undercover agent you could have you

Mark young

It was finding a girl first that was willing to go nude all our girls were used to dancing with G-strings on and we found a girl who been with us for a while

Mark Young

and we waved her off one night and we waited for her to come back and give her the report,

THE SPY HAD A SIMPLE MISSION: FIND OUT WHY SPEARMINT RHINO’S DANCERS WERE MAKING SO MUCH MONEY, AND BRING THE SECRET BACK

Mark Young

she never came back umm, you know the money was that good up there.

Stiletto on stage close

"Boots are gunna walk all over you"

THE DEFECTION OF THEIR NUDE SPY HAD BEEN A VALUABLE LESSON IN THE FAILINGS OF AMATEUR ESPIONAGE.

Exterior Pimlico

DETERMINED TO GET IT RIGHT, PETER STRINGFELLOW NOW CALLED FOR THE PROFESSIONALS.

Stringfellow

Ahh that stage I did OK, some, I mean, it sounds very romantic to say this, undercover detectives.

Arrival George and Sid

MEET THE MEN FROM KENRICK ASSOCIATES. PIMILICO PRIVATE DETECTIVES SID CREASEY AND GEORGE RICKMAN HAD A REPUTATION AS THE EXPERTS WHO COULD GET THINGS DONE.

George Rickman

We were a private investigation company that were approached by a client to look at Spearmint rhino which was a lap dancing club in north London in relation to how they were operating in the London borough of Camden and how other clubs were operating in the city of Westminster.

THEY SPOKE TO STRINGFELLOW. THEY HEARD HOW SPEARMINT RHINO WAS KILLING HIS BUSINESS.

AND THEY CAME UP WITH

Detectives meet in restaurant

A NEW STRATEGY: TO UNDERMINE SPEARMINT RHINO BY DISCREDITING IT’S OWNER, SQUEAKY CLEAN AMERICAN, JOHN GRAY.

Sid Creasey Sync

one of the concerns that the client had was this darker hand in the background that was manipulating the Spearmint Rhino scene with the acquiescence of John Gray or not.

Detectives meet in restaurant

WHO WAS THE MAN BEHIND JOHN GRAY? THE DETECTIVES STARTED TO DIG FOR THE PERSON WHO HAD STEERED SPEARMINT RHINO TO LONDON.

MJP ALONE

THE NAME THEY CAME UP WITH - NONE OTHER THAN THE MAN WHO INVENTED LAP DANCE, MICHAEL J PETER - STRINGFELLOW’S FORMER PARTNER.

David Fierstone walks balcony

THE SCOUT WHO HAD FOUND SPEARMINT RHINO’S KEY LONDON VENUE HAD BEEN SENT BY MICHAEL J PETER.

FIERSTONE

Michael said "David listen what I would like you to actually do if you can is find a venue for us back in the UK and we will go and give Peter a run for his money"

AND WHEN JOHN GRAY WANTED TO EXPAND HIS SPEARMINT RHINO CHAIN, MICHAEL J PETER GAVE HIM THE TIP OFF THAT STARTED IT ALL.

MICHAEL J PETER

You need to go to Europe, "and you know what I got a wonderful guy over there named David Fierstone, err, who has found me numerous locations, but I have turned them all down, and the most recent one that my right hand guy turned down, I think might be of interest to you, you should contact him and take a look at it"

MICHAEL J PETER

Go ahead you have my blessing, open it and go for it"

AND GO FOR IT THEY DID. SPEARMINT RHINO LOOKED LIKE IT WAS SET FOR AN UNSTOPPABLE RISE IN BRITAIN.

BUT STRINGFELLOW’S DETECTIVES HAD BEEN BUSY INVESTIGATING THE MAN AT THE TOP.

Spearmint Corporate promo

JOHN GRAY CLAIMED THAT HE WAS AN UPSTANDING AND HONEST BUSINESSMAN.

John Gray

We are going to be very very well appreciated there the professionalism we bring to the table and doing what we say we are going to do and abiding by laws and regulations.

Spearmint promo film John Gray smiling,

BUT HAD THIS ALWAYS BEEN THE CASE?

PICTURES OF FILE

STRINGFELLOW’S DETECTIVES HELD A SECRET MEETING WITH THE INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, ADRIAN GATTON, AND PASSED HIM THEIR FILE ON JOHN GRAY. GATTON’S SUSPICIONS WERE RAISED. HE WENT TO SEE THE AMERICAN.

Adrian Gatton

Meeting him, his whole demeanour the way he spoke so quickly, the fact he said he been a former police officer, that he had trained to be an attorney, everything about me just said this guy has got to be a bullshitter, this has got to be bullshit. My own research said John Gray had been to prison in 1995.

GRAY HAD BEEN JAILED FOR DEFRAUDING THE US NAVY ON A BUILDING CONTRACT. LONDON AUTHORITIES KNEW NOTHING OF HIS CRIMINAL PAST.

Gatton newspaper Evening Standard – headline "lap dancers who are said to sell sex, and the criminal past of the man behind the Spearmint Rhino empire"

IT SEEMED STRINGFELLOW HAD THE AMERICAN CORNERED, DRAGGING HIS REPUTATION INTO THE MUD.

HOW COULD JOHN GRAY ESCAPE FROM THIS?

HE DECIDED TO LAUNCH HIS OWN PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN AND FIGHT BACK ON TELEVISION.

A BBC CREW SPENT THE DAY IN HIS FAMILY HOME AND ON THE CORPORATE PLANE, WHERE JOHN GRAY AT FIRST TRIED TO LAUGH OFF THE DIRT DUG UP FROM HIS PAST.

John Gray on plane

Gray: Well

Interviewer: It is probably difficult to talk candidly or honestly about it

John Gray

No I want to be very honest, as you know there’s been an inordinate amount of press in the UK and lot of it was so long ago it’s is what you would you call "spin by old times". There is no doubt that I erred I did things wrong it, there are reasons and excuses none of them are justified because, when you err, or you go outside the law, you are wrong, period, so if I give you a detailed story about, which is true, about how it was a construction company family oriented etc and that’s the reason I did it and I would do it again, it is wrong. Period. Never ever will. Period.

John Gray smiling

London from air at night

JOHN GRAY HAD FOILED THE ATTACK BY COMING CLEAN. NO AMOUNT OF MUD SEEMED TO STICK TO THIS SMILING AMERICAN.

Sid and George watch Spearmint Rhino

PETER STRINGFELLOW REGROUPED WITH HIS DETECTIVES. THERE SEEMED NO OPTION BUT TO ESCALATE THE CAMPAIGN.

Apartments above Spearmint rhino

STRINGFELLOW’S PRIVATE DETECTIVES TURNED THEIR ATTENTION TO THE BLOCK OF 120 APARTMENTS ON TOP OF HIS STRIP CLUB.

Sid and George exit car close

IT WAS TIME TO FIGHT DIRTY.

Scissors cut image for leaflet

Sid at photocopier

A RESIDENTS GROUP SPRANG UP TO COMPLAIN ABOUT SPEARMINT RHINO. BUT THE "RESIDENTS" ANGRY LEAFLETS HAD BEEN MANUFACTURED BY STRINGFELLOW’S MEN.

Sid Creasey

The purpose of the leaflet was the communicate to residents in the immediate area the impact of the opening of Spearmint Rhino.

JOHN GRAY TOOK ACTION TO NEUTRALISE THE THREAT.

Mark Young

We found that the residents, for whatever reason, did a massive u-turn in the course of their campaign to get Spearmint Rhino stopped

David Fierstone

Whatever residents wanted John would give it to them

JOHN GRAY GOT OUT HIS CHEQUE BOOK. HE BOUGHT HIS WAY ON TO THE RESIDENTS COMMITTEE THAT WAS GIVING HIM SO MUCH TROUBLE.

Stringfellow

He went and bought an apartment and called himself a resident. (Laughs claps.) I was very annoyed at the time.

Mark Young

And so from residents committee of 20 opposed to Spearmint Rhino it boiled down to one.

STRINGFELLOW WAS FOILED AGAIN.

Sid lights lighter

HIS DETECTIVES WENT BACK TO CLOSE SURVEILLANCE OF SPEARMINT RHINO.

Sid & George in car surveillance of Spearmint Rhino

THEY CHECKED THE RULEBOOK, FOR ANYTHING THAT COULD BRING THE CLUB DOWN. AND THEY FOUND SOMETHING ASTONISHING.

ALTHOUGH CAMDEN COUNCIL ALLOWED SPEARMINT RHINO’S DANCERS TO GO NUDE, BRITISH LAW SAID IT HAD TO BE STRICTLY "LOOK BUT DON’T TOUCH"

A BREAKTHROUGH CAME WHEN STRINGFELLOW WAS PASSED AN ALARMING REPORT.

Stringfellow

Word kept coming back, ahh, he’s got girls in, God know where he got from, they are doing everything and anything whoa.

Stringfellow

It was shocking. I was shocked. Hey, Peter Stringfellow was shocked. What a hypocrite. But I was shocked.

Paper taken out from George’s coat

If I read a few lines from that report it may give an indication of what we were up against.

George Rickman

"Some of the females pressed their breasts in their face and rubbed themselves all the way down the front of him "

String get picture taken

IF THE DETECTIVES COULD FILM TOUCHY-FEELY STRIPPING INSIDE SPEARMINT RHINO, STRINGFELLOW MIGHT STILL WIN HIS WAR.

Agents arrive at Tottenham ct road

Private eyes exit from car wide

Peter Stringfellow

I wanted to see if it was true.

Sid Creasey

Our first visit with covert recording equipment was a shot in the dark because we knew that the lighting in the club was really low.

U/c footage entering club

THE PRIVATE EYES GOT INSIDE THE CLUB BY PRETENDING TO BE ORDINARY BUSINESSMEN. WITH THEM WAS ANOTHER MAN, WHO’S JOB IT WAS TO HAVE SEX ON VIDEO.

Sid Creasey

On this occasion we took a gentlemen with us, who was basically our stooge, our line was that we were businessmen, he was a client, a major contract with his company, and we were out entertaining him.

Girls lap dances on man

STRINGFELLOW SPIES HAD TO LOOK THE PART – AND ACT THE PART

Sid Creasey

We try and be as gregarious as possible, basically draw the girls in, and come to us, and see how far we can push them in any sexual activity.

WHAT THEY SAW ON -STAGE WAS STRICTLY LEGAL. BUT WHEN THEY PAID THEIR WAY INTO A PRIVATE BOOTH, THE NO TOUCHING LAW WAS OUT-THE-WINDOW.

White girl lap dances on man

Sid Creasey

The gentleman in question was basically offered sex, oral or full and basically he was unable to rise to the occasion

Sid and George walk streets

Exterior Spearmint rhino

THE FAILING OF THIS PRIVATE DICK WAS A CATASTROPHE. THE DETECTIVES NEEDED VIDEO EVIDENCE THAT STRIPPERS WERE OFFERING UP PENETRATIVE SEX – THIS COULD SHUT DOWN THE VENUE AS AN ILLEGAL BROTHEL.

U/c George in club

THE DETECTIVES RETURNED WITH A NEW MAN, MORE MONEY AND A BETTER CAMERA.

George Rickman

On the second occasion, we took a stooge in, a Nigerian guy, who were purported to be a Nigerian prince, once again had given us a good contract, needed to be looked after.

Sid Creasey

The infra red camera was able to give us clearer shots of between girls and clients or punters whatever you want to call them.

SID CREASEY HIT THE JACKPOT WHEN A DANCER ACCEPTED MONEY TO PERFORM A SEX ACT ON HIS "NIGERIAN PRINCE".

Sid Creasey

Private eye undercover footage

I can’t even think what you are doing with your hand down there.

Girl: that’s fuckin’ big isn’t it look at look it, that is fuckin huge fuckin’ hell.

Sid: That is going to cause you some pleasure or what.

SID CREASEY

The infra red camera was able to give us clearer shots of between girls and clients or punters whatever you want to call them, however the infra-red camera had a glow to it and it was nearly compromised because one of the girls noticed it.

Undercover footage

Girl What’s that

SID: that’s my, that’s my mobile. Hang on.

Sid pulls out phone

and I quickly explained, its OK, it’s my mobile phone.

THE NARROW ESCAPE LEFT THEM TIME TO GET DOWN TO BUSINESS.

George Rickman:

We were left to our own devices within that booth for an hour.

U/c footage Dancer with head in man’s lap

Dancer on top of man

George Rickman

Dancer sits on lap while man holds penis

Our client was being entertained in any way he wanted by a young lady from Spearmint rhino.

THE PRIVATE EYES RUSHED THE TAPE THEY’D SHOT IN JOHN GRAY’S CLUB TO PETER STRINGFELLOW.

Stringfellow

And they came back with this video. This guy said, it’s really good. Huh huh, "it’s really good"

"What do you means it’s good?"

"Let me have a look."

And sure enough there it was.

Mark Young

Me and Peter we high-fived each other. That was it, the evidence was there on tape, they were done, they were sunk.

Pan to Stringfellow on phone

STRINGFELLOW NOW HAD ALL THE EVIDENCE HE’D WANTED TO BRING DOWN SPEARMINT RHINO.