Hard ma But I finally understand my belove
THE daughter of notorious East End hardman Lenny Mclean is still troubled by his memory 20 years after his death.
Kelly Mclean had a difficult childhood with her volatile dad, nicknamed The Guv’nor, who for years was regarded as the toughest man in Britain.
He was a Jekyll and Hyde character, a 21-stone bare-knuckle fighter who was capable of acts of terrifying violence but also moments of tenderness.
Lenny, who starred in Guy Ritchie’s 1998 film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, once bit off a man’s nose – but he was terrified of spiders.
He would buy Kelly 30 chocolate Easter eggs but fly into a rage if she chewed her dinner too loudly.
Today Kelly, 46, who has written a book, My Dad The Guv’nor, thinks she finally understands him.
Doctors have told her he probably suffered from crippling bipolar disorder. The mum-of-two, who was diagnosed with the same condition earlier this year, is wracked with guilt over her relationship with him.
Kelly, a teaching assistant, sobbed as she said: “If I could have my dad back for one day, I’d tell him I was sorry that I judged him like everyone else.
“There were times I hated him and I looked at him like he was a bully. It got to the stage where I couldn’t even laugh at his jokes. We did live in fear of him, but I didn’t understand he had this condition.
“I wish he was here now so I could get him some help. I don’t think he enjoyed life. He always looked like he had the world on his shoulders.”
Demons
She believes if he’d had the right medication as a young man his life could have been completely different. Kelly has spent her adult life trying to get to grips with the demons of her childhood.
She even attempted suicide shortly after Lenny died of lung cancer, aged 49, in 1998.
Filling up, she said: “When Dad died I realised how much I loved him and that’s what cut me up.
“We had so many issues. We just had these rowing matches and I hated him because of his attitude. I didn’t think I loved him but I did.
“I’m absolutely shocked and ashamed because if I’d known then what I do now I probably wouldn’t have looked at my dad the way I did. I probably could have helped him.”
Her book looks at her chaotic upbringing in a council flat in Bethnal Green, East London.
Lenny’s childhood was also traumatic. He was regularly beaten by his alcoholic stepdad Jim Irwin.
In his teens he started to rub shoulders with figures in London’s criminal underworld and became a feared nightclub enforcer and a friend of the Krays.
But he is best known for his bare-knuckle fighting career. Fuelled by the rage he felt over his abusive childhood, he claimed to have defeated thousands of opponents. When he won he’d come home with a wad of cash and throw in the air like confetti, to the joy of Kelly and her brother Jamie, now 47.
She remembers how he once put opponent Brian “The Mad Gypsy” Bradshaw in a coma but visited him in hospital days later.
Kelly said: “When he walked on to the ward and saw him, Dad was completely gutted.
“He kept visiting him from that day forward and they stayed friends.
“But I think from an early age I realised people feared my dad. We didn’t have a normal upbringing.”
And Lenny’s escapades were not confined to the ring. His desperation to make a quick buck meant the home was often crammed with knock-off goods such as sunglasses he couldn’t see out of.
He once ate 20 boxes of cereal which Kelly says “tasted like cardboard” because he couldn’t bear to admit he was unable to sell them on.
After the family bought a newsagent’s in the late 80s, he hurled the till at the head of a man who said he had shortchanged him by a penny.
Kelly said: “The till smashed against the wall of the shop and money scattered everywhere. The man just managed to duck out of the way. He must have feared for his life.”