Ray Winstone: 'I fear for my family'

Ray Winstone: 'I fear for my family'
Ray Winstone: 'I fear for my family' (Image credit: PA Archive/PA Photos)

Ray Winstone has revealed he fears for his own family's safety on the streets of Britain. The 52-year-old Londoner - who has three daughters with wife Elaine - has appeared in 15 minute anti-knife crime film Cold Kiss, made by the family of Harry Potter star Robert Knox. Ray said: "Every day on the news, you turn it on and someone's been stabbed or shot ... I guess it's 'cause I have kids and I fear for my kids when they go out - and I fear for my wife when she goes shopping that some nut-nut is going to do this." The 44 Inch Chest star believes National Service could be the solution for punishing young offenders who carry knives. He said: "I've not always been a great believer in the whole 'three strikes and you're out' but I am now. "And maybe that's for selfish reasons and whatever - but if you're caught with a knife you get nicked, the second time you get five years, the last time you get life and there's no ifs or buts with that. "I was lucky enough to go out to Camp Bastian this year and I saw a lot of kids on the front line who put their lives on the line for us and for Afghanistan, who are doing a fantastic job. "And you think well, National Service then. Let's have a bit of discipline. You want a fight, you want to carry a knife, well I tell you what to do, go to Camp Bastian, go on the front line if you're such a tough guy."

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.