research dossier

Audience Research 
This video puts forward the idea that for an audience to be engaged in a story the main character must be sympathetic they don't have to be likeable but they must be sympathetic and in a lot British gangster the characters are sympathetic because they tend to be the underdog or have a great adversary or problem they must overcome. For example take this scene from lock stock and two smoking barrels, the two main characters are seen selling stuff on a street corner but are caught by the police the first scene in the film shows us the main characters dealing with a problem so we can sympathise with them.

From my own research through useful informational videos and surveys, i have found that audiences tend to enjoy characters who have an amount of humor with them this correlates with my research into various gangster films as in all of the films i looked at there was always at least one character who acted as a sort of comic relief to be an opposite to the dark topics and tones of the films.