Where is Guy Stanton now? Real-life man behind Legends says he's still 'affected' by 'terrible' things he saw
"He became too notorious and had to die"
Legends will be most people’s introduction to one of the most extraordinary true stories of the ’90s – and Tom Burke’s character, Guy Stanton, is based on a real man.
The new Netflix series, written by Neil Forsyth (The Gold, Guilt), revolves around a real-life undercover operation to bust the UK’s most dangerous drug gangs.
Here’s the thing: instead of recruiting the police, the government tasked everyday Customs officers with developing alternate personas (known as “legends”) and infiltrating groups of smugglers, traffickers, and dealers.
Guy Stanton (played by Tom Burke) was one of these unlikely amateurs, but – as the ending of Legends suggests – his treachery against heroin-peddling criminals took a heavy toll, even to this day.
Who is Guy Stanton?
Guy Stanton is the 60-something south-Londoner whose memoir (The Betrayer: How An Undercover Unit Infiltrated The Global Drug Trade) served as the inspiration for Legends.
In the ’90s, he’d had a fairly mundane, 9-5 job. However, he was among the first people recruited for Beta Projects, HM Customs’ innovative and risky idea to train undercover officers to target drug smugglers.
He worked undercover for 11 years of his 35-year Customs tenure. While his wife (played by Charlotte Ritchie in the series) knew what he was doing, he told other friends and family that he had a “quiet office job”.
In reality, he had ingratiated himself amongst incredibly dangerous criminals. He didn’t skimp on his persona, either. He’d wear a £175k Rolex watch (borrowed from Customs) and designer shirts and shoes, all of which helped make him seem more convincing.
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What’s Guy’s real name?
“Guy Stanton” is an alias, and he has never revealed his real name in any interview.
In an interview with The Times (which noted he had security concerns, so he didn’t show his face on Zoom), he was asked if he still worries about his safety.
“We’re now talking about 35, 40 years ago. A lot of [the real gangsters] are now dead. A lot of them were my age and are now older, well into their seventies and eighties, and are not the forces that they were at that time,” he said.
However, while he still uses his alias, Stanton said his “legend” eventually had to “die”.
“If I am truthful to myself I was undercover too long. Thankfully, my handler suspected I was in real danger and refused to allow me to go into a meeting where I’m sure now I would have been murdered,” he told The Sun.
He was later diagnosed with leukemia, as well as being accused of taking bribes (the charges were dropped due to a lack of evidence).
“I was proud of being a deep uncover operative but Stanton became too notorious and he had to die,” he said.
Is Guy Stanton married?
Yes! Guy Stanton is married to “Jo”. Little else is known about their relationship, presumably as part of his efforts to protect her and his family.
However, we do know that Jo also worked for HM Customs. “[She] would lay out all my kit for me and always check the pockets,” he told The Sun.
“The worst terror for a UC — an undercover investigator — was being caught with documents or identification. You’re never going to talk your way out of that.”
Is Legends accurate? What does Guy think?
Guy Stanton has largely praised Legends. While it doesn’t always illustrate the duller parts of the job (like paperwork and “sitting in the back of a car for 24 hours”), he said it captures what it felt like for him and his colleagues.
There are some scenes directly based on things that happened to Stanton. Later in the series, we see Burke’s Guy on the tube with his family when he catches sight of a gangster from his undercover operations. This really happened.
“Guy told me this story about being on the Tube one day with his family. I just couldn’t believe it,” Forsyth told The Independent. “It went into the show very cleanly.”
Stanton added that the show effectively illustrates “the stresses and the on-edge type of thing – always looking over your shoulder”.
There is a small change in the series. While Burke’s Guy works with Mylonas (Gerald Kyd), he actually worked with Keravnos (also known as Thunderbolt), a Greek Cypriot casino owner.
What is Guy Stanton doing now?
Guy Stanton no longer works for Customs, but he’s now a private investigator.
He’s also said to have lectured foreign law enforcement on covert tactics, on account of his Customs experience.
In the series, Steve Coogan’s Don talks about how hard it can be to let go of your “legend”. So, is Guy’s persona still somewhere within him?
“I’ve not gone to that world for a long time now but he certainly left traits with me. Some of them silly traits that my family will laugh at,” he told The Times.
“We go into a restaurant and it’s a standard joke that I’ll sit with my back to a wall. Or in a corner looking at the door. That was because I did it for so long to avoid anybody just rushing in on you.”
However, it did “affect” him and continues to cast a shadow over his life.
“Yes, it did affect me. And my wife always says that I’ve seen terrible things and terrible people, and I always used to be the ultimate optimist,” he explained.
“I think now, sometimes, I’m a bit of a glass-half-empty person. You just look at the news and rather than thinking, we’ll get over this, you think the worst. It did affect me, to know these people are there, to know that that world exists and continues to exist.”
Read more: Legends filming locations: All 4 UK cities, a former convent & one country over 1,500 miles away
