TV legend Fred Dinenage brings fascinating Krays show to Portsmouth

And this time Fred, veteran of How!, Meridian Tonight and a host of other hit TV shows, is the interviewee rather than the interviewer, another change he has taken to like a duck to water.

Fred is taking on tour a theatre show – which comes to Portsmouth Guildhall this Friday (March 1) – in which he talks about the work he has done with Ronnie and Reggie Kray and other notorious names from the underworld of criminal gangs.

He can tell the stories like no-one else – for this definitive insight into the real life of Britain's most notorious gangsters comes from the Krays’ trusted official biographer.

Fred did a handful of shows in the autumn in the south and they proved so popular Fred’s now embarking on a wider tour taking him to new venues right across the south of England.

He can’t wait – and is blown away by how much interest there still is in the subject.

"We’ve had a wonderful response to the talks about the Kray twins - and also about some of the highlights (and bloopers!) of my 60 years on TV which come into the event too,” he told us.

"I particularly remember the audiences at the delightful Shanklin Theatre on the Isle of Wight, the Concorde Club near Southampton and the Saga cruise ship, the Spirit of Adventure.

"The audiences have been a nice mix of all age groups and I’m so grateful people bothered to come. I’m looking forward now to more venues in the south and a mini tour of England and Scotland, in March and later this year.

"I love talking on stage to a ‘live’ audience as opposed to a piece of metal and glass in a TV studio. I’ve always loved performing ’live’ and meeting people. It’s a challenge, of course, but it’s where I’m happiest.

"It still amazes me that people are still so fascinated by Reggie and Ronnie and London‘s underworld in the 1950s and 60s. I even get students writing to me who are studying crime and the Krays – these students weren’t even a twinkle in their parents’ eyes when the twins were in their prime.

"I’m looking forward to meeting many more people In the coming months. And hopefully I will be able to answer their questions!”

For decades the Krays were feared as the ultimate ganglords of the London underworld, but their reign of terror came crashing to an end when in 1969 both they were given life sentences by a judge at the Old Bailey.

Reggie went on to serve decades in some of the toughest prisons in the country, while Ronnie became a patient at Broadmoor with an insanity only kept under control by massive doses of drugs.

Fred was chosen by the twins to tell their official story and he became one of the very few people allowed into their inner circle. He gained an unparalleled insight into the real lives of the kings of crime, and in his show he reveals stories and incidents that have never been aired publicly before.

Presenting the show is another broadcasting giant, stalwart DJ Alex Dyke, known to radio listeners across the south.

Fred will disclose what it was like to venture into some of Britain's toughest institutions and meet the most foreboding twins in criminal history – a pair who other journalists just couldn’t get close to.

The stories will fascinate and intrigue, while audiences will learn about the gritty reality of being a gangster in the criminal underworld of the swinging 60s – from the only man they trusted to tell their tale.

Fred told us: “I got involved with Reg and Ron because when I was at TVS presenting Coast To Coast, one of our reporters went and did a piece on the Maguire family in Gosport, whose daughter had had a life-saving transplant at the famous Addenbrooke’s Hospital and her parents wanted to raise as much money as they could for the unit.