Knit to This
The Gold
PBS Masterpiece has brought over a good one from the BBC.
The Gold is inspired by the real-life Brink’s-Mat heist, a brutish armed robbery that took place near Heathrow in 1983. The robbers thought they were stealing cash, but instead they got three tons of momentarily under-protected bricks of gold valued at 26 million pounds.
It was a dog-catches-car moment: now what? Getting rid of the gold and laundering the money without getting caught was more than six blokes in a van were equipped to handle—they needed co-conspirators with specialized skills. The Gold tells the story in an intelligent and constantly surprising way, skipping over tropes of police procedural and courtroom dramas at a quick pace that keeps the viewer on their toes.
While great on its own, the story is overlaid, or underlaid, with the massive changes in social fabric that were happening in England in the 1980s. Three systems—the class system, the criminal underworld, and the secret network of corrupt police—are each struggling to hold onto power and privilege, while the good-guy detectives are pushing against all three.
With mixed results that are interesting and sometimes fun and sometimes depressing to watch.
In charge of the investigation: Hugh Bonneville as DCI Brian Boyce, a stiff-necked senior detective who served in World War II as a teenager—prompting my stunning realization that in the 80s, the 40s were as recent as the 80s are to us now. Think about that for a minute, folks my age!
The cast is filled with familiar faces, including others from Downton Abbey. I had to google like mad to identify some of them.
My one quibble: apart from scenes strewn with antennaed telephones and early desktop computers, and a Members Only-ish jacket here and there, the material culture of the 80s is not well evoked. The clothing, hair, and makeup of The Gold seem like a blurred blend of late 20th century styles. Everybody didn’t wear Ralph Lauren in the 80s! Or maybe we are going through an 80s revival right now, so the era’s looks don’t read as “period”? Anyway this really is a quibble, and a debatable one at that.
I truly enjoyed this series for all the reasons that you describe, Kay. But in the quibbles department I must say that while I am a fan of the actor Jack Lowden, who is superb in Slow Horses and delivered a fine performance in Gold, he simply seemed too young for the part. No spoilers, but the character that he played was a seasoned professional and it’s hard to imagine that he got where he did whilst still a very young man. Or maybe that was the point.
Surely he started his life of crime very young…but I see your point! When I looked up some of the real news coverage I saw that the casting department definitely gave some of the players a glowup!
Thanks for this!!!
Both series of The Gold were excellent. Would also highly recommend
I loved this series, and it deserves a rewatch. I loved Hugh Bonneville in this role. I binged it on PBS Passport.
I’ve wondered about this one, thanks for the review.