How to watch Gangs of London for free: Stream the brutal-but-brilliant drama series
Here's how to watch the new nine-episode Sky Atlantic TV series that everyone’s raving about for free
This quarantine has been a boon for streaming services, and thankfully, there’s great content to keep us busy until the world returns to normal in (hopefully) a few weeks’ time. One of the best shows to benefit from this is the new Sky TV drama, Gangs of London.
A crime family with rivals all over the city out for revenge may sound like a familiar story, but if its early reviews are anything to go by, then Gangs of London could be the next best drama you watch on TV. Unless you have Sky TV, the best way to watch Gangs of London for free is to get a Now TV Entertainment Pass, which costs £9/mth but comes with a weeklong free trial for new customers.
Before we explain the various ways to start watching, though, a cautionary word of warning. Gangs of London is not for the faint-hearted. Case in point: the opening scene features a character shot in the face and a London gangster kingpin set on fire before being thrown off a building. But with a name like Gangs of London, that seems about par for the course. While some people can’t bear to watch such violence during these already-grim times, others are praising the show for its realistic portrayal of fictional events.
The series is co-written by Gareth Evans and Matt Flannery, who made their mark working on The Raid martial arts films. It stars Joe Cole (best known for his role as Tommy Shelby’s brother in Peaky Blinders), Sope Dirusu, Lucien Msamati and Game of Thrones’ Michelle Fairley, who plays a wife whose husband is killed and son is out for revenge. I wonder why that sounds familiar.
The show begins with the assassination of one of the most powerful criminals in London, a gang leader whose reign spanned two decades. No-one is certain who ordered the hit, but one thing is clear: whoever takes his place will have to fill some pretty sizeable boots.
The burden falls to the impulsive son of the assassinated crime boss, whose reckless attitude ruffles more than a few feathers. Before long, irate and power-hungry gangs from across the globe descend upon London; from the Albanian Mafia to the Pakistani Drug Cartel, the Yardies to the Triads, every crime syndicate in existence seems hell-bent on carving out a piece of England’s capital.
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How to watch Gangs of London for free in the UK: Now TV
Gangs of London is a Sky Atlantic original series but the service ties you down to an 18-month contract and may even include an initial setup fee. The best way to avoid this is to subscribe to a Now TV Entertainment Pass.
Now TV is basically an a-la-carte version of Sky TV consisting of different passes that lets you pick and choose what genres you want to watch. To watch Gangs of London, you’ll need the Now TV Entertainment Pass, which costs £9/mth. “But you said we could watch it for free!” I hear you cry.
If you’re quick and you haven’t used Now TV before, you absolutely can. All Now TV passes come with a 7-day free trial for new customers; given that you’re stuck at home, that seems like more than enough time to binge-watch all nine episodes of Gangs of London over a weekend.
How to watch Gangs of London in the UK: Sky Atlantic
Gangs of London is a Sky Atlantic Original TV series. Unlike earlier originals that are drip-fed in weekly instalments, all nine episodes of the series launched on 23 April to give us something gruesome to watch in quarantine. Thank you Sky, it’s just what we needed.
To watch Gangs of London, then, you’ll need a Sky TV package with Sky Atlantic. Sky TV costs £29/mth on an 18-month contract, and this includes a one-time setup fee of £20. Is it worth it? Well, it’s certainly one of the best ways to spend your time in quarantine because you get instant access to over 2,500 series and over 60 channels, most of which are in HD or UHD.
Gangs of London airs every Thursday at 9pm on Sky Atlantic, but you can download the entire series and watch it at one go if the suspense is too much for you. Those with a Sky Go subscription can also use the free Sky Go app to stream Gangs of London on any of your mobile devices.
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How to watch Gangs of London for free abroad: use a good VPN service
Granted, you’re probably not travelling anywhere during this time but if you live outside the UK, then the best way to stream Gangs of London is to use a good VPN service. A VPN basically protects your web browsing from prying eyes – including your own internet service provider – by shielding your IP address and letting you browse virtually from any country that you want. This means you can use it to access streaming services that aren’t available in your country like Now TV, or even access Netflix libraries in other countries to see what you’re missing out on.
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ExpressVPN: There are tonnes of VPN services available, but only a select few will let you reliably circumvent geo-blocks – restrictions that prevent you from accessing another country’s version of a given streaming service. One of these is ExpressVPN, which is our top-rated VPN service because it keeps no record of what you do online, as well as offering 24/7 customer service and even a 30-day moneyback guarantee. Our readers also get three months free on the one-year plan.
NordVPN: Another good VPN service – and second on our list – is NordVPN. The service recently announced a new update called NordLynx which is based around the WireGuard protocol, making the service even more secure while significantly improving streaming speeds. Win-win. NordVPN shares the same characteristics as ExpressVPN, including 24/7 customer support and a generous moneyback guarantee if you’re unhappy for whatever reason. Its three-year plan costs less than a Starbucks cup of coffee a month.