The BBC's latest drama The Gold continued on Sunday (February 19), with the second episode hooking viewers. The series is based on true events that occurred after the world's largest robbery at the time.
The plot continued to unravel in the latest episode, There's Something Going On in Kent, as the police investigated the criminals involved in the crime. A network is established by the culprits to smelt the stolen Brink's-Mat gold, sell it back into the market, and launder the earnings.
In the series, Welsh actor Tom Cullen plays John Palmer, the gangland boss who ran several jewellery shops in the Bristol area. John was seen smelting gold in his garden shed in front of his wife Marnie J. A. Ryan. John said: "I'm making a new life for us The thing with gold is, if you have enough of it, it can buy you a life you don't have any business dreaming about."
Later in the show, a police officer arrived at the shed, claiming to have received a "call from a dog walker about the smoke." John quickly got the police off his case by claiming to doing regular jeweller work and even offered him a piece to take home to his wife.
On Twitter, fans have said they are 'hooked' as they tuned in tonight to watch the events unfold further. One viewer said: "The Gold on BBC. Fantastic viewing." Another said: "I'm officially hooked on The Gold on BBC, its so crazy this is all true." A third added: "Big fan of ‘The Gold’ on BBC / iPlayer."
Brink's-Mat robbery took place on November 26, 1983 at around 6.30am. Six men broke into the Brink's-Mat depot near London's Heathrow. The group were not expecting to find £26m worth of gold bullion (£90m in today's money) during their heist.
The robbery was so huge, that Johnson Matthey Bankers Ltd, the owner of the bullion, collapsed as a result. This was due to the bank making substantial loans to "fraudsters and insolvent companies".
The ripple effect of the robbery can still be felt today. Half the gold is believed to have found its way back to the legitimate gold market and the effort to dispose of the gold is thought to have caused the birth of major-scale international money laundering.
John 'Goldfinger' Palmer became a household name not just in the West Country, but across the country after his alleged involvement in the Brink's-Mat robbery in 1983, which at the time was the most costly robbery in the world.
He at one point Britian's richest criminal - even beating the Queen on the Sunday Times Rich List - after building a fortune of around £300 million with a combination of money laundering, fraud, racketeering and legitimate businesses.
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