Paramount+ and the BBC have today announced the cast for new true story drama, The Gold, which has recently started filming.
Six-parter The Gold is written by Neil Forsyth (Guilt, Eric, Ernie & Me) and directed by Oscar-winning Aneil Karia (The Long Goodbye), along with Lawrence Gough (The Last Bus, Snatch, Misfits).
It is the first commission from Tannadice Pictures, the joint venture set up by Neil Forsyth and Objective Fiction, part of Objective Media Group, an All3Media Company.
Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey, Paddington 1 and 2) will star alongside Jack Lowden (Small Axe: Mangrove, Slow Horses), Dominic Cooper (The Preacher, The Devil’s Double), Charlotte Spencer (The Duke, Cinderella), Tom Cullen (Becoming Elizabeth, Black Mirror), Emun Elliott (Guilt, Old), Sean Harris (Southcliffe, Mission: Impossible), Ellora Torchia (Ali and Ava, Midsommar) and Stefanie Martini (Prime Suspect, The Last Kingdom) in the real-life drama for BBC One and iPlayer.
On the 26th November 1983, six armed men broke into the Brink’s-Mat security depot near London’s Heathrow Airport, and inadvertently stumbled across gold bullion worth £26m. What started as ‘a typical Old Kent Road armed robbery’ according to detectives at the time, became a seminal event in British criminal history, remarkable not only for the scale of the theft, at the time the biggest in world history, but for its wider legacy.
The disposal of the bullion caused the birth of large-scale international money laundering, provided the dirty money that helped fuel the London Docklands property boom, united blue and white collar criminals and left controversy and murder in its wake.
Tommy Bulfin, BBC commissioning editor, said: “The fact that we have assembled such a talented and exciting ensemble cast is testament to Neil’s incisive interrogation of one of the most infamous robberies in British history and the remarkable events which came in its wake. And to have the brilliant Aneil Karia join fresh from his Oscar win is the icing on the cake. The BBC One audience are in for a real treat when this hits the screen.”
The Gold was commissioned by Piers Wenger, director of BBC Drama and Charlotte Moore, chief content officer. It is a co-production between Tannadice Pictures, an Objective Fiction partner, and VIS, Paramount’s international studio division.
The series will premiere in the UK on BBC One and BBC iPlayer, and then be made available on Paramount+ in the US and all international markets where the service is available.
Tommy Bulfin will executive produce for the BBC; Neil Forsyth and Ben Farrell for Tannadice Pictures; and Kate Laffey and Claire Sowerby-Sheppard for VIS. Charlie Leech (The Aliens, Lovesick) will produce.
Pippa Considine
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