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Weeks after Russian gangsters brutally killed Alex Godman’s uncle Boris in a Mafiastyle hit in the lavish new BBC drama McMafia, people are still saying to me, ‘It’s a great show but why does it have to be so violent?’ I’ll tell you why. A lot of the gangsters in Britain today are incredibly wealthy, so any drama about people with their Knightsbridge mansions, Jaguar cars and jet-set lifestyles runs the risk of glamorising it all.

That’s why I’m pleased McMafia – based on my book and starring Grantchester’s James Norton as Alex Godman, the British-raised son of an exiled Russian mob boss – doesn’t shy away from making the connection between the glamorous lifestyle of these super-rich individuals and the trafficking of women and smuggling of heroin. It’s possible to appear a sophisticated member of high society, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have blood on your hands. So bloodshed in the drama reflects the violence in organised crime.

I visited the brothels of Tel Aviv, the drug dens of South Africa and met cocaine dealers in Colombia while researching my book. I learnt that if a gangster can avoid using violence he will – a threat of violence is far more effective. But on those occasions you decide you have to use muscle, it must be decisive. So with Boris’s death, the gangsters firstly eliminate the problem of Boris. And secondly, they let it be known that the Russian crime boss Vadim’s rule stretches into the heart of Britain. Some viewers may think McMafia sensationalises the world of organised crime and believe ‘hits’ like that don’t really happen here. But I assure you – that world is very real.

The drama has also been accused of being antiRussian – the Russian Embassy even put out a tweet saying there are fewer than ten Russians in British prisons, claiming the drama painted a distorted picture of Russia. But McMafia shows no country has a monopoly on gangsters – it has Czech, Egyptian, Indian, and Israeli gangsters. However, I admit Alex’s alcoholic father is based in part on the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was found dead at his English home in 2013.

Far from being anti-Russian, both I and the drama-makers have sought to show that all countries have a culture of organised crime. But the most important message McMafia rightly gives is that the outward respectability of today’s international gangsters is built on blood money. I make no apology for the drama’s occasional violence. McMafia, tomorrow, 9pm, BBC1. McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime by Misha Glenny, is out now in paperback.