Letter: Fascination of crime

Sir: In 'Giving gangsters a touch of glamour' (18 February) you state that people responsible for making television programmes such as The Underworld should take the greatest care to avoid a suggestion of admiration. Yet you admit that the public appetite for these programmes includes a 'touch of unacknowledged admiration for criminals' readiness to pit themselves against society and the forces of law and order'.

As long as we tolerate a society in which the quality of each of its member's education, housing, health and justice is increasingly determined by the inequality of each of its member's level of access to wealth and influence, the smash-and-grab response of professional criminals will attract unacknowledged admiration and fascination at an increasing rate.

Yours faithfully,

VAUGHAN GRYLLS

London, EC1