‘Downton’ and ‘Sanditon’ stars join BBC’s new 1980s heist drama ‘The Gold’

Upcoming ’80s crime drama The Gold has announced its cast.

Inspired by the true story of the Brink’s-Mat robbery, the new BBC mini-series will dramatise the ‘crime of the century’ and the decades-long chain of events that followed.

The six-part drama is written by Neil Forsyth (Eric, Ernie & Me), creator of 2019’s hit mystery-thriller Guilt, and the scripts are based on extensive research and interviews with the real people involved.

Leading the cast is Paddington star Hugh Bonneville, who’s now back on our screens in the second Downton Abbey movie.

He’ll be joined by Charlotte Spencer, who you’ll recognise as Esther Denham in the new season of Sanditon.

Also appearing are Jack Lowden (War and Peace), Dominic Cooper (Mamma Mia!), Emun Elliott (The Paradise), Sean Harris (Southcliffe), Ellora Torchia (Midsommar), and Stefanie Martini (The Last Kingdom).

Bonneville’s former Downton co-star Tom Cullen, who played Lord Gillingham, is also amongst the cast.

The official synopsis reads: “On the 26 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.

“…The Gold is a pulsating dramatization which takes a journey into a 1980s world awash with cheap money and loosened morals to tell this extraordinary and epic story for the first time in its entirety.”

The Gold will premiere later this year on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK, and on Paramount+ in the US and all international markets where the service is available.

BBC Commissioning Editor Tommy Bulfin commented: “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 [director] 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.”

Hugh Bonneville reprises his role as Sir Robert Crawley in Downton Abbey: A New Era this Friday – take a look at the first reviews for the movie here!

Downton Abbey: The Complete Collection box set is available on DVD on Amazon.