The British criminal underworld has a lore as rich as Arthurian legend, with its own errant knights (Jack the Hat, Ronnie and Reggie), daring adventures (the Great Train Robbery, the Hatton Garden heist) and storied quests (usually to the Costa del Crime and back again). It also has its own holy grail in the missing Brink’s-Mat millions. No fortune is more mythologised, more sought-after or more mysterious.
The Brink’s-Mat legend only grows in diverting retelling The Gold (BBC One), a six-part series from Neil Forsyth, creator and writer of Scottish crime series Guilt. It began in 1983 – as depicted in the opening scene – when six men in balaclavas burst into Brink’s-Mat secure storage facility near Heathrow airport. They intended to steal £1m in cash, but instead came away with about £26m of gold bullion (equivalent to £90m today). At the time, it was the largest score in British history.
