Inside the rise of the Godmother of British crime

Joan Hannington was an ordinary suburban housewife when she swallowed several gems in a jewelry store and calmly left the shop. 

But it would be her first step down a criminal path that would see her live a life of enviable luxury.

Becoming infamous for her eye-catching hairstyles and crafty tactics, Joan embarked on a rollercoaster crime spree throughout the 1980s adopting personas and disguises to rob diamonds at glitzy shops around Britain.   

Now at the age of 68, Joan is completely reformed and enjoying a quiet retirement.

However the spotlight still has a way of finding her. 

This weekend, Game of Thrones superstar Sophie Turner, 28, will star in ITV's new true-crime series Joan which will will focus on some of the more sordid aspects of the jewel thief's life. 

Teasers of the show so far have seen Turner in a number of strikingly different looks as she showcased the eponymous criminal's numerous disguises. 

But who was the real crime queen behind ITV's new thriller? 

Much of what is known about Joan Hannington, who nicknamed herself The Godmother, comes from her 2004 memoir, I Am What I Am. 

Joan was born into poverty on the grim streets of 1950s Acton, west London. 

As a child, she and her siblings were regularly beaten and abused by her violent father Richard O'Leary who she claimed used to strip her nude and 'beat her with a wet dishcloth' or 'strike her on the shins with a cricket bat.' 

Perhaps unsurprisingly given her dire circumstances, Joan ran away from home at the age of 13 and by 17 she was married for the first time. 

She had picked a particularly unwise choice for her spouse however: a convicted armed robber and brute named Ray Pravey.

Less than a year later, her daughter Debbie was born, but Ray went to prison when she was still a young child, which forced Joan to put her into foster care.

One of the first things Joan stole was a car, which she used to drive to see her daughter Debbie, though the police quickly caught her. Afterward, she and Pavey separated, and the wealthy couple who had been fostering Debbie won custody of her.

After Joan finished a two-year probation sentence, she began working at a high-class jewelry store, where she picked up her habit of stealing and swallowing jewels.

Explaining in her autobiography, Joan said: 'It seemed the simplest way to hide them. 

'Then, 12 hours later, once nature had taken its course, I sterilised the gems in a bowl of gin.' 

The stones she had stolen had a value of around £800,000 and helped her on the way to becoming the woman she had always dreamt of being. 

She continued: 'I just saw those diamonds, and I saw a flat and some money and getting Debbie back. 

And then, after a while, when it became obvious I wasn’t going to get her back, I just thought: ‘F*** it, I’m going to have a brilliant life then.' 

Joan later met professional thief Boisie Hannington who broke her out of a fight she had started in a London pub. 

Together, the two hatched schemes to counterfeit checks and to deal fake antiques, while Joan swiped millions in jewels.

Millions of pounds passed through their hands as their heists became more and more outrageous. 

Joan's style of burglary typically involved her swallowing gems, which she did by developing a technique to allow her to build up enough saliva in her mouth to swallow rings. 

She became a master of disguise and accents and would often stage elaborate deceptions to get her prize. 

In her memoir I Am What I Am, Joan detailed how on one heist she had arrived outside a jewelers shop in a chauffer driven hired car and asked to peruse the diamond rings. 

After estimating the most valuable one she would explain to the shop that she was going away to think about it. 

She would then commission a counterfeit ring from memory and return to the shop a week later to switch it and swallow the original. 

She explained: 'I would book myself into The Ritz Hotel and make a call to the shop, saying that I had decided to take the ring and would be back later to collect it.

'I’d then ask them if they had a pearl necklace or something in stock and, if so, could they call me back at the hotel and let me know.

'Of course, when they rang back and discovered I was staying at The Ritz they were certain I was the type of person who would have enough money to buy the ring.'

Of course, as her lootings became more lucrative, Joan's luxurious lifestyle became more excessive. 

During her heyday at the top of Britain's criminal ranks, Joan owned 11 fur coats and around 2000 pairs of shoes. She drove around in Ferrari and a Jaguar and would visit the hairstylist and nail salon every day to ensure she always looked sharp. 

Her own wardrobe was loaded with designer clothes and she had a horde of diamonds and Cartier jewels that she would wear whilst out on the town. 

Her stolen jewels, the value of which was once as high as £800,000, she had buried at the bottom of her garden in a biscuit tin. 

Describing the height of her excesses, Joan recalled: 'I would say in the morning: ‘Let’s go to New York!’ By lunchtime, we would be sitting in first-class seats, sipping champagne, with £20,000 cash lining our pockets.' 

Just days after her second child, a son named Benny, was born, Joan's husband Boisie was killed while attempt to burn a house down for insurance money, leaving her a young widow.

Amazingly, despite her incredible time at the top of the criminal pyramid, Joan never spent any time herself in prison for the jewel heists - only serving a 30 month sentence for using a stolen cheque book shortly after she met Boisie. 

The thief then reportedly gave away her ill-gotten possessions and apparently tried to start anew, and in 2004 she published her memoir.

Hannington was reportedly gave her input on the new series, which was created by Anna Symon and written by Symon and the screenwriter and novelist Helen Black.

Joan debuts on ITV tonight.