In the late 1980s, on an ordinary East London street, a girl was grabbed from behind and had her coat pulled over her head so she could not see. Her friend stayed to help her and was punched in the face for it. The man who did it had no idea whose daughter he had picked. She was Lenny McLean's, and by the end of the evening the whole street had watched him find out.
The story comes from Lenny's daughter Kelly, who told it in her book about growing up with the Governor. The film follows her account.
Before the Governor
Before the books, the films and the interviews, Lenny McLean was an East End hard man from Hoxton, from a world where violence was currency, protection and survival. He was six foot two and more than eighteen stone. He was never a polished boxer. He made his name in unlicensed fights, on the doors, in private matches and on the street, and the stories told about him were told quietly.
Whatever the truth of every tale, people were frightened of him because they believed he would go further than most men were willing to go. So when somebody put hands on his daughter, it was never going to end quietly.
Old Ford Road
By her account, children on the estate roamed free in groups until it got dark. One early evening Kelly was walking along Old Ford Road with her friends, heading to the shop for sweets, with her closest friend beside her.
Near a bus stop they passed a couple coming the other way, a man and a woman. Kelly later described their drawn faces and unhealthy skin. They looked rough, out of it and unpredictable. One of them called out "hello beautiful", and the girls carried on walking. They were children with sweets on their minds.
Then Kelly was jumped from behind. Her hands were in her pockets, so she could not protect herself. The man pulled her jacket up over her head and she could not see or move. She said later she was afraid he had a blade on him. Most of her friends ran. One did not. Her closest friend stayed and screamed at the man to get off, and took a punch straight in the face for it, hard enough that all she could see was stars. Even then she did not leave.
Kelly wriggled free and went for the woman. The man stepped in front of her and warned her that if she laid a hand on the woman, he would make sure she was black and blue. She told him to wait there while she went to get her dad, and the two girls ran.
Thirty children
Word spread faster than they could run. By the time they reached the flats, Kelly remembered, around thirty children were running behind them, and not one of them went back to warn the man. Everyone wanted to see what would happen when Lenny McLean came out. According to Kelly, the man had picked up an iron bar and pushed it down his trousers to wait.
Kelly shouted up for her mum, and her mum shouted for Lenny. Within seconds he was at the bottom of the block, looking at his daughter's friend and asking where the man was.
Out on Old Ford Road the street was packed and the children were shouting "go on, Len". Kelly remembered the man freezing on the spot when he saw who was coming. Whatever plan he had to stand his ground went the moment he saw the size of the man walking towards him. Lenny hit him once, an open-handed slap. Kelly described him flying through the air like a rag doll and landing in the middle of the road, narrowly missing a passing number 8 bus. While everyone watched Lenny, Kelly's mum went for the woman.
When the man came round, Lenny took him by the throat. From that day on, he told him, whenever he saw Kelly and her friends he was to look at the floor. The man promised it would never happen again. Lenny told him he wanted to kill him but there were too many witnesses, and to get gone before he really got hurt. The pair left barely able to walk, and the crowd laughed them down the street.
Walking her home
The story did not end there. Kelly's friend worked in a chemist along the Roman Road, and after the attack she saw the couple walk past the shop more than once. It frightened her, so she went up to the flat and told Lenny.
For weeks afterwards, Lenny walked her home from work every night. She had stayed with his daughter when everyone else ran, and she had taken a punch for her. He did not forget it. To him, she was family.
To plenty of people Lenny McLean was simply violent. To the girl who stood her ground on Old Ford Road, he was the man who made sure she got home safely. The man with the iron bar thought he had picked on two helpless girls. In that part of the East End, it was a mistake you only made once.