Who is Giovanni Di Stefano? It's a question his son Michael has been thinking about for most of his life. In this series, Michael wants to get to the truth - wherever that takes him. From one of the big names in Hollywood, to a life as a recording artist, a football club owner, a General in the Serbian army, and a lawyer to the biggest criminals in the world...there's a lot to unpack. Armed with Giovanni's hard-drive, containing the secrets to his extraordinary life, Michael embarks on a mission to discover who his dad really is. Could he be a fantasist, a cunning con-man, a wheeler-dealer, or perhaps, just possibly, an international spy?
Episode 7: Home Truths
Giovanni’s long battle for freedom looks to be (almost) over! The future looks bright for Michael and his dad. But before then, way before they walk off into the Italian sunset, there are some difficult questions that need answering. Is Michael’s hero really who he says he is?
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5/23/2022 • 40 minutes, 36 seconds
Episode 6: Political Prisoner
Why has Giovanni done the things he’s done? His son Michael says it may just be his mile-wide ego. Maybe. That could explain the singing and the football. But the extraordinary heights and powerful circles he infiltrates, the fact he’s now a prisoner… to Michael those things are evidence there is something more secretive and sinister going on. Could he actually be a spy?
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5/23/2022 • 44 minutes, 35 seconds
Episode 5: Giovanni Buys a Football Club
It’s the mid 90s and Giovanni is, by now, a budding megalomaniac. He’s becoming a big player on the world stage. All rich and powerful men need a hobby and Giovanni chooses football. But not satisfied with watching on from the terraces, he goes football club shopping, with consistently calamitous results.
Calum and Michael chart his career from Italy, to Scotland - and discover that where Giovanni went - trouble was usually not far behind.
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5/23/2022 • 43 minutes, 38 seconds
Episode 4: The Yugoslav Years
In the midst of a bloody and violent war and supposedly on the run from powerful people, Giovanni calls on some unsavoury characters. What was he really doing in wartime Yugoslavia? Rumours circulate as his son, Michael, recalls joining his dad on a shady jaunt to Belgrade at the age of 17.
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5/23/2022 • 36 minutes, 9 seconds
Episode 3: Major Moves
Giovanni was a man making up for lost time!
In this episode Calum charts his journey from rural Northamptonshire to the bright lights and celebrity filled streets of Hollywood. What WAS Giovanni doing there? And did he really launch the career of Brad Pitt? This episode deals with some extraordinary claims, and an extraordinary next move - as Giovanni arrives next in Yugoslavia - with big plans, and even bigger friends.
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5/23/2022 • 27 minutes, 41 seconds
Episode 2: Humble Beginnings
Where did it all begin for Giovanni? What circumstances could possibly lead to the outrageous path he took?
To find out, Calum visits the small Italian village of Petrella Tifernina in search of clues. Will he find them in the relationship with Giovanni's mother - the circumstances of his arrival in England - or in a more unlikely destination, wrapped up within the secret service?
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5/23/2022 • 36 minutes, 55 seconds
Episode 1: The Devils Advocate
Giovanni Di Stefano has led an extraordinary life. But how much of it REALLY happened?
In this first episode - journalist Calum McCrae meets Giovanni's son Michael - and together they begin a quest to find out the truth about the mysterious Di Stefano. Their journey begins with his most recent chapter - as a notorious lawyer to the likes of Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic, and Harold Shipman.
Did Giovanni REALLY represent them? And what's he hiding behind his self-proclaimed title of The Devils Advocate?
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5/23/2022 • 39 minutes, 5 seconds
Introducing: Swindler. Saviour. Mobster. Spy?
Who is Giovanni Di Stefano? That's a question which has been bothering his son Michael for some time!
Across seven episodes, and with the help of producer Calum McCrae, he'll journey into Giovanni's extraordinary life-story, and try to separate the fact from the fiction. Was his dad really a big player in Hollywood, a general in the Serbian Army, a friend of master-criminals and warlords, a football club owner AND a recording artist? And how did he reach such dizzying heights after such humble beginnings?
Listen, follow and subscribe - all episodes launch on May 24th
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