New BBC drama Gold kicked off on Sunday, February 12. The six-parter stars Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville, Dominic Cooper from Marvel's Captain America and Mamma Mia, Jack Lowden of Slow Horses and Sanditon's Charlotte Spencer. Read more about the series here.
The Gold tells the story of the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery, which saw six armed men break into the aforementioned security depot near London’s Heathrow Airport, and inadvertently stumble across gold bullion worth £26m. The majority of the stolen gold has never been recovered, with a substantial amount believed to have been melted down by notorious criminal John Palmer in a garden shed at his residence in Lansdowne, near Bath.
In the series, Welsh actor Tom Cullen plays Palmer, who was Britain's richest criminal at one point- even beating the Queen on the Sunday Times Rich List - after building a fortune of around £300 million. This was achieved through a combination of money laundering, fraud, racketeering and legitimate businesses. He even earned himself the nickname, ‘Goldfinger’. But what happened to him?
Read more: BBC The Gold: The true story behind the new real-life drama starring Hugh Bonneville
What happened to John Palmer?
In 1987, four years after the robbery, Palmer faced trial at the Old Bailey. The jury returned a not-guilty verdict after his continued claim of denying that he knew the gold was stolen. Palmer famously blew kisses from the dock to the 12 jurors presiding over the trial. In 2001, he was eventually sentenced to eight years in prison and was incarcerated at Long Lartin maximum security facility in Worcestershire.
At the age of 64, Palmer was murdered after being shot six times at his gated Essex home on June 24 in 2015. Initially, the investigation was not prioritised correctly due to the fact that the bullet holes had been mistaken for heart surgery scars. The killer has never been found, and Essex Police and Crimestoppers offered a six-figure sum to anyone with vital information that leads to conviction.
In an interview given to The Telegraph, Palmer’s wife Marnie said: "I have given up on hope that the case will be solved. So much of what we have been told by Essex Police has been hogwash. The scene of the murder was simply too convenient. John was found in the only spot where he had not installed CCTV. And where were his dogs? It was virtually unheard of for him to keep them inside.”
The Gold continues at 9pm this Sunday, February 19 on BBC One. Alternatively, the whole series is now available to watch on BBC iPlayer. For more showbiz and television stories get our newsletter here.
READ NEXT:
BBC The Gold full cast including Downton Abbey, Mamma Mia and Slow Horses stars
BBC The Gold: How many episodes of the true-crime drama are there?
Tom Grennan responds after inappropriate Ellie Goulding ‘joke’ at the Brits
Bob Mortimer: Health scare, net worth and how he burnt down his family home as a child
