Marcus Redwood

Kent doorman who says he founded Marc-One Security in 1990; author of Big Guy: The True Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Bouncer

Marcus Redwood
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Born
Died
Nationality	British
Residence
Occupation	Doorman; company founder; author
Known for	Marc-One Security; Big Guy: The True Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Bouncer
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Children
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Education
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Website

Marcus Redwood is a Kent doorman who says he founded Marc-One Security in 1990, taking the name from Marcus. The firm’s site repeats that date and that founder. In 2026 he published Big Guy: The True Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Bouncer (ISBN 9781917439879). He says he sold the firm about five years before an August 2026 interview to Gareth Brett. Companies House does not show Brett. The live company, Marc One Security Limited (12575629), has Charlene Williams (December 1983) as director from 28 April 2020.

Nigel Farage

On the interview published as “The UK’s most feared doorman” he said the press had used photographs of him with shotguns after a Marc-One job at a Nigel Farage rally, and that he had not been there himself. His words, from about 1:21:19:

The press had done it twice to me. They did it later when my security company did some, we had some security for Nigel Farage. And again, it wasn't even me. It was my security company helped out for one of his rallies or whatever it was. And the next thing you know there's pictures of me with shotguns and it's like, craze minder looks after Nigel Farage.

He did not name the rally, the date, or the paper. No press cutting with that headline has been retrieved.

Tommy Robinson

On a later interview he said he had helped in the VIP area at the last three events for Tommy Robinson, invited by Mark Bates, and that this was not a Marc-One Security contract because he had already sold the firm. From about 51:08:

I've actually got a couple of friends. I mean Dave's one of them and the other guy is Stuart from London who I met doing the security for Tommy Robinson.

Interviewer: “Oh for Tommy?”

Yeah I've done the last three, helped out with security in the VIP area for the last three and I met a great guy up there called Stuart who's been helping me out with the peptides as well. So between Stuart and David I mean I do feel like I've made some improvements.

From about 52:38, asked whether he had provided security for some of Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rallies:

No, no, I didn't provide them because I don't have a security company. I sold it. I sold my company. It's still going. Marc-one security is now owned by a guy called Gareth Brett. Still a very successful company, but I don't have a security company but because of, probably because of my old reputation, I'm still friendly with loads of guys over the years that I've met. So there's a guy called Mark Bates who does do, he's good friends with Tommy and does a lot of his personal security. So he invited a few of us up, it was like a Grandad's team of security... But we was a very experienced team and we did a very good job. They're very happy with us. So yeah, it's great to be a part of that because I do believe, whatever anyone says about Tommy, his intentions are really good and we need to bring awareness to what's going on in our country.

The three events are not dated in the interview. Mark Bates and Stuart are not otherwise identified on these recordings. The sale to Gareth Brett remains his account. The register shows Charlene Williams, not Brett.

What he says about the firm

On TheContentCAST he said the company took off when he was about 28, after a divorce, the loss of a gym, and a spell in a bedsit. He had been a tree surgeon and a bodybuilder, and had already done about ten years on the door. He started with six out-of-work doormen, and has said the firm once had about 200 staff.

Licences

On the Dodge Woodall podcast he said he had been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm, that his Security Industry Authority licence was withdrawn for four months, and that his shotgun licence was withdrawn for a year and a half. A court record has not been retrieved.

Big Guy (2026)

Front cover of Big Guy (Mirror Books, 2026). Strapline: “1 man, 3,000 fights… 1,000 knockouts”. Photograph of the author, arms folded, black background, red title type.

Big Guy: The True Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Bouncer is the autobiography of Marcus Redwood, written with Mark McLaughlin and published in Britain and Ireland on 18 June 2026 by Mirror Books, a Reach plc business. Print ISBN 9781917439879; ebook ISBN 9781917439886. Copyright page: © Marcus Redwood 2026; editing and production Christine Costello and Roy Gilfoyle; cover design Chris Collins; printed by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon. The copyright page states that the events are true but that some names and details have been changed. Foreword by Dodge Woodall, described on the page as a Great British Hall of Fame entrepreneur and host of the Eventful Lives podcast. Dedication: wife Rungnapha; twin sisters Janice and Joanne; son Damion; grandchildren Hermione and Hudson; and unnamed door staff from a career he dates at more than 40 years.

The cover strapline is “1 man, 3,000 fights… 1,000 knockouts”. The publisher synopsis repeats those figures, adds that he claims never to have lost a one-on-one on the doors, and names the Kray twins, Freddie Foreman, Frankie Fraser and Dave Courtney as acquaintances. It also states that he was shot at outside his home by men he describes as London hitmen. A Daily Mirror interview of 27 June 2026 retold the 1990 Margate-club / driveway-shooting episode and the Ronnie Kray funeral security claim.

Publisher blurb

Mirror Books / Waterstones synopsis, condensed: Redwood is presented as the UK’s most notorious nightclub doorman. About 40 years on doors in southern England; an estimated 3,000 fights and about 1,000 knockouts; no one-on-one loss claimed. Raised on a small farm near Ramsgate; bullied at school; took up boxing. First unofficial door work at 16 for free beer; formal door work from 18, with no training, uniform, radio or metal detector, alongside a council tree-cutting job. Prime size given as 6 ft 2 in and 19.5 stone. Guns and knives treated as routine; some ejected customers said to have returned armed; one ejection said to have brought a London hit. Underworld names in the blurb: Kray twins, Freddie Foreman, Frankie Fraser, Dave Courtney. Close of the blurb: he saw deaths in the club trade, worked with both “the best and the worst” doormen, and presents the book as a survival story.

What the book says about Marc-One

In the chapter “Marcus Redwood… Businessman!” he dates the agency to age 28, after the split from his first wife Sarah, and says the name was a shortening of Marcus: Marc-One. First contract named in that chapter is La Parisienne, Folkestone, a 16-man weekend after the in-house team walked. He describes growth from six doormen to about 50 within two years, then about 200 at the peak, on self-employed contracts, with a margin he puts at £2 then £3 an hour. Later in the managers chapter he says the name is still in use and is run by Gareth Brett, whom he says he has known for 30 years. That is his statement. It is a different vehicle from the 2020 Companies House companies Marc One Security Limited (12575629) and Marc-One Security Services Ltd (12548999). Those filings are not in the book.

Chapter summaries (pages posted)

Summaries below are from the ebook pages supplied (cover through the opening of chapter 15). They are the author’s narrative. The copyright page warns that some names were changed.

• Foreword (Dodge Woodall). Woodall says he met Redwood, booked him on Eventful Lives in 2023, and describes him as hard, humble and loyal. Closes “Proud to call you a friend.”
• Setting the Scene. Opens on a locked bedroom door and a loaded pistol. Frames him as “Marcus from Margate”, previously a council tree-cutter on £84 a week, not a gang boss. School bullying; Broadstairs Boxing Club; first unofficial door at 17 for free beer; Graham’s Gym, Margate; weight from about 13 stone to 15, later “over 19 stone”. Agency started at 28 with six men, later about 200. States the 3,000-fight figure as three fights a night in bad clubs, not one a week. Claims a London “mafia family” ejection led to shots fired at him on the road outside his house. Names Dave Courtney, Ronnie Kray’s funeral security, Thailand, and the Big Guy charity.
• The Early Years. Born 1962. Lives in Ramsgate. Childhood at The Shallows Cottage, St Peters, Broadstairs, a former Baptist church used as a smallholding. Twin sisters Joanne and Janice. Father controlling, physical, motorbike racer at Brands Hatch; mother easier. Stood up to his father at 16. Council tree gang; private elm job. First wife named Sarah. Father’s £4,000 “gift” for gym rent later reclaimed, and said to have been matched from the house sale. Pet rabbit ‘Dinner’ cooked and served to the child. Boxing bout with Gary Giles, lost on points.
• My Beginnings in Doorwork. Prospect for the Misfits, described as a Hells Angels splinter; hospital with a leg broken in 12 places and a near amputation, so he missed a Hells Angels beating over back-patches. Gym run by “Graham”, portrayed as a violent doorman who later died after overdoses. Greens Wine Bar, Margate: head doorman “Metal Mickey”; Redwood says he brought a 12-gauge after being told to “bring a tool”; Larry Lord drove the gun away as police arrived. Elwyn as the calmer influence.
• I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside. 1980s Margate coach trade: Arsenal, Chelsea, Millwall parties; Broncos as a cowboy-themed beano bar; bylaw that coaches leave by 6pm, often ignored. Venues named: Escape, Frank’s, Punch and Judy. Smoking ban and 24-hour licensing blamed for killing the nightclub circuit. Ace of Clubs / Bar Majestic (now the Imperial): 52-step staircase used as a choke point. Says he sacked staff who let in underage girls or resold seized drugs.
• Big Ambitions. Claims he never started a fight and has never been convicted of a violent offence; says he elected Crown Court on serious charges. GBH and Section 18 arrests. Aikido with doorman John Morley, used for one-hand “sleeper” restraints. Johnny Andrews as the local model of a doorman who did not bully. Car-park fight after a domestic: says he broke a man’s jaw, was charged with GBH with intent, and was found not guilty. Gym at the Winter Gardens, Margate, about 4,500 sq ft, bought in his mid-20s and lost in the divorce. Steroid buying trips to Tenerife; London sellers confronted at the gym with a carving knife and a club hammer; he says they left after he told them not to touch his father.
• The Marriage Game. Met Sarah in the summer of 1981 through the bike gang; she was 17, he was 18. Pregnancy on an August bank-holiday trip to the New Forest. Son Damion. Father told of the child only when Damion was a few months old. Council flat in Margate, then a Ramsgate terrace bought from his father. Marriage ended with him in a bedsit; later reconciliations. Second wife Amy, from about age 40 to 47; he attributes the split to the 2008 crash. Current wife Ann / Rungnapha, met in Thailand after his 50th birthday (2012); married 2016.
• Marcus Redwood… Businessman! Agency origin and the Marc-One name, as above. Thorley Taverns (Frank and Philip Thorley); head doorman at Frank’s, Cliftonville, before the agency. Big Lloyd as right-hand man. Mario Michael kept on the door at Escape against Chief Inspector David Bragg, then said to have lost his licence and become a coach at Pej boxing club. Luminar Leisure (Steve Thomas and Steve Dennis): Kiki’s in Margate, then six “super clubs” a week for about ten years, named as Dartford, Ashford, Gillingham, Sittingbourne, Eastbourne and one in Folkestone. Says he reported a Folkentone manager who was skimming the tills.
• The ‘Right’ and ‘Wrong’ Managers. Dartford head doorman “Matt”, a friend, dropped after Redwood says police had seen him dealing. While Redwood was in Thailand, Matt is said to have recruited about 50 men to smash the club. Redwood’s account: North London “Proper Chopper” searched the group, held a gun to Matt, and the night passed without damage; weapons left with the manager were then found by police after Matt “grassed”. Says he caught doormen reselling seized drugs, and confronted a doorman (“Mike”) who tried to quote for his contract, including putting a gun to the man’s knee in a car. Team model: anchorman, front-of-house talker, “soldiers”.
• Anthony Robbins Changed My Life! Early-2000s “Unleash the Power Within” at the Excel Centre, including the fire-walk. Introduced by Philip Thorley and Giles Quinn. Goals: a gold Rolex, a larger firm, a smaller mortgage. Says staff went from 50 to 120 in a year, then to over 200, and weekly take to about £4,500, before 2009. Lost three large venues, about three quarters of earnings; staff cut to 100. Cash wage packets of about £20,000 made up at home; a Friday raid found only wage packets. Thailand retirement plan: limited company, first house there at 40, aim of one house a year and retirement at 50.
• Violence… Guns and Close Calls. Folkestone visit: says a man in a red BMW pulled a Desert Eagle .50 and that he rugby-tackled him and threw the gun. Herne Bay club scanner. 1990s petrol bomb outside a Folkestone club. Eastbourne club lost after a killing. Escape, Margate, as a 1,500-capacity three-level club. The Van Gogh, Ramsgate: “rent-a-riot” / “Herberts”; fireplace used on a doorman; he says this was the only time he left a door, after picking up a bat. Claims over 1,000 knockouts and that he was never left unconscious.
• Stabbings, Glassings and Razorblades. Ace of Clubs: customer in a motorbike jacket pulled a knife over a 50p cloakroom fee; police later returned the knife because he was a merchant seaman. Friend Lee Humphrey stabbed on Margate seafront; attacker, 19, got three years; Humphrey died of gangrene after amputations. Metal detectors bought for every venue. Glassings, including a short woman who put a glass in his arm and was charged with GBH; a pint glass to his face. Worst injury described: a queue-jumper razor-slashed a young woman’s face; he says he held the cheek until the ambulance and that she later thanked him. Ramsgate CCTV of a group stamping on a small man and knocking out a girl who intervened; he says he gave police three names and that no one was arrested. Separate clip, which he says had over 30,000 views, of a doorman tackling a man who had glassed a girl.
• Violence… and Revenge. Mid-1980s, Damion aged four. Four barred men let in by head doorman Gordon Chambers. He says he dropped three and hospitalised two. Sunday video-shop: shotgun under his chin in front of the child; police sirens; he made no complaint. Later, three of them at a Ramsgate Monday bar; he says he knocked them out in the reception. “Paul”, said to have attacked Sarah at a party in Milmead; months later at a Thorley Taverns stag do he says he broke Paul’s jaw. An off-duty policeman was in the stag party. CID pursuit for about nine months; charged; case thrown out. He dates himself at 23 in that passage.
• I Predict a Riot. Repeats the no-conviction claim. “Millwall Bushwacker” coach-party incident ended, on his account, with one punch. Motorway-services fight after a remark to his girlfriend; he bought a gun the next week and did not use it. Debt-collecting with Big Lloyd and Gerry: Canterbury garage, man in a wheelchair beat him with the footrest; Whitstable garage, socket-wrench to the head, 40 stitches, overnight in cells, bound over and banned from Whitstable for a year. Eastbourne unpaid bill chased in person; settled within a week.
• A Target for Hitmen. Dates the episode to about August 1990, age 28, at a Margate club. Two men he says were sons of a London family; he broke one man’s ankle throwing him. November: two gunmen on the road outside the house; shots into the car from what he calls a “nine mil”; neighbour collected casings. Loaded gun by the bed for three months. One of the two later said to have shot himself playing Russian roulette. Dave Courtney asked to speak to the family. Separate CID warning that someone had paid £5,000 to have him shot on a Friday at Escape; he says he called at the man’s Whitstable house with a Marc-One card and that no attempt followed. Mistaken-identity note: the £5,000 job was over a beating by doormen from another firm. Derringer practice in the garden put four rounds through a neighbour’s greenhouse into a conservatory.
• The Pub on the Hill. Kemsley Arms, Sittingbourne, “the house on the hill”, about 800 capacity, owned by Frank Thorley. First night a customer collapsed and died while being carried out; mates blamed the door. Later a road barricade; he rallied two carloads and was let through, then followed by a police van. “Jack” shown a .38 and backed off, then a sawn-off from a motorbike blew a hole in the doors. Separate “BB gun” incident. Lee Murray (“£50 million Murray”) and his crowd as regulars. “Alfie”, brother of a friend called Lenny, did repeated drive-bys with a sawn-off after being barred; Redwood’s account is that he stood in the road and told him to shoot, then used a handheld camera and a verbal deal to keep him out.
• Scrapes With the Law (opening only). Reputation as “Superdoorman”. Security at Ronnie Kray’s funeral: visits to Reggie in Maidstone with doorman Andy Copaz; overnight at English & Sons, Bethnal Green, and the funeral day. Press and police attention. Long acquaintance with Dave Courtney from 1995, and a denial that he worked for him. Drug-dealer offers of £x a head refused. “Genesis file” of police intelligence, later renamed; he says the last check, three or four years before writing, still had him down as a drug importer, manufacturer and hitman. Claims he has never been imprisoned. The posted pages break off during an ABH arrest at a Wednesday door, with CS gas and a warrant.

See also

• Big Guy: The True Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Bouncer
• Marc One Security Limited
• Charlene Williams
• Gareth Brett
• Mark Bates
• Nigel Farage
• Tommy Robinson
• Lewis Jefcoate

External links

• The UK’s most feared doorman, Farage passage
• Tommy Robinson passage
• Big Guy, ISBN 9781917439879