User reviews

British mini-serieses about true stories are almost always worth to watch. This is certainly one of them. There is not much to spoil since this is a true story and everyone who googles for the title will get the whole story. This mini-series is more than well done. The cast is on point, the story well told. Good entertainment too. I watched the movie "King of thieves" only two weeks ago and I thought it was very boring but this mini-series is so much better. Just watch it ;-)

Delayed from transmission for two years due to legal complications, this four-part dramatisation of the Hatton Gardens heist which according to different reports cleared between £14,000,000 to a mind-boggling £200,000,000, the events depicted, from what I've read up in the background, appear accurate and true to life.

Carried out at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit location in London's "Diamond District" over the Bank Holiday Weekend in May 2015 by a gang of elderly career criminals dubbed the "diamond wheezers" by the press, doing "one last job" the series concentrated more on the planning and carrying out of the robbery than the police operation which eventually caught the gang and brought them to justice.

There were bound to be few surprises in the cast with familiar faces from the old-boys network like Timothy Spall, Kenneth Cranham, Alex Norton and David Hayman to the fore and even if some of the broad Cockney accents were tricky to decipher, there's little doubt that the production here played it straight and scored points by deviating little from the well-known facts of the case, right down to the painstaking recreation of the actual underground crime scene itself.

The robbery itself was no Topkapi piece of silent, smoothly executed theatre. It was loud, messy and at times chaotic, with the initial six-strong gang having to abandon the operation on the first night due to their being unable to clear away nailed-down cabinets blocking entry, two members including the planner and ringleader Brian, played by Cranham, quitting the enterprise rather than go back the second night to try again and almost unbelievably, new boss Timothy Spall's Terry character keeling over with a diabetic episode mid-job.

And yet they somehow pulled it off, but squabbling over "divvying-up" the proceeds, especially when Brian comes back around sniffing for a share of the loot, saw the gang make the elementary mistake of not lying low for a time before being stung by a police operation which eventually netted the lot of them, including the elusive sixth man Basil, if not anywhere like the whole proceeds of the crime.

With such a reliable cast, respect for the source material and a commendable lack of sensationalism, it all made for strong viewing, even if the outcome was never in doubt. I particularly appreciated the invention of a composite character to stand in for the affected victims of this so-called "victimless" crime and the way his honesty and humility ultimately shamed the perpetrators own naked greed. I might quibble about some of the P.C. casting decisions with some of the peripheral characters and didn't like the loud guitar music used in the background, but with the experienced Spall and Cranham in particularly good form, this unglamorous depiction of this headline case ultimately proved worth the wait from production to transmission.

The Hatton Garden robbery has been well documented, so I won't go into the plot here. Several other films have been made on the same subject but none really did it justice. This four part series starting with the robbery allows the characters to feel believable rather than the cardboard presentations portrayed in the other offerings on the same story. and is superior in every sense.

All the cast here are stand out, how anyone can call any of the actors sub par is beyond me. Evidently they don't understand the craft. All the leads, especially David Hayman, Timothy Spall, Geoff Bell and Alex Norton all give first rate performances as the old timers well past their criminal sell by date. With four episodes to tell the story more time is given into the police investigation and is notable for the actress T'nia Miller giving another stand out performance in an under written role. The time given to the Police investigation into how the gang was caught makes the series more compelling. And the fall out the gang experienced after the robbery underscores the old motto, there is no honour among thieves. They're not the most sympathetic bunch of villains and It is good that screen time is also given to a composite character whose life and family business is ruined as a result of the robbery, highlighting the fact that the resulting crime did leave victims in its wake, whose lives were changed forever by the robbery.

If true crime drama is of interest then this is certainly recommended viewing, however this is a well acted and well made drama regardless of the genre and one worth your time.

Had this movie been made in the distant past, then I reckon it would have been made with just a sneaking empathy and admiration towards the characters and a 'good side' to them may have been evident..but there is nobody to admire here. The characters are depicted (and played very well, by our favourite trouper actors) as aging, unhappy,self serving,greedy and arrogant whom you would not trust with your loose change to buy you a chocolate bar. A swansong perhaps to a dying breed where all their actions can be seen and judged, but a reminder that today's cyber criminal can cause even more mayhem, misery and poverty but his/her actions are not seen and mostly will not be punished.

All in all a good show but the acting seemed very woody at times and timothy spalls facial expressions seemed over hammed.

The most we had any right to expect from "Hatton Garden" was a fairly accurate reconstruction of the crime and yet another addition to that long line of British gangster pictures and TV shows. What we got instead was one of the all-time great heist pictures, be that on television or in the cinema, and a masterclass in great acting, helped along by Paul Whittington's superb direction and a brilliant screenplay from Jeff Pope and Terry Winsor.

Spread over four nights it told the story of the 2015 Easter Weekend Hatton Garden robbery and its immediate aftermath. The first two nights concentrated solely on the robbery, filmed with a documentary=like precision and up there with the very best of them. The subsequent two nights showed how the police finally caught up with these, not-very-bright, geriatric robbers.

As the thieves who couldn't agree on anything, (it's amazing they were able to pull the job off in the first place and they very nearly didn't), Timothy Spall, Kenneth Cranham, David Hayman, Brian F. O'Byrne, Geoff Bell and Alex Norton were absolutely terrific with Spall and Cranham taking the lion's share of the honors. This wasn't just a bunch of fine British actors playing at being stock criminals but beautifully fleshed-out portrayals of living, breathing ordinary individuals and the real pleasure of "Hatton Garden" was watching great actors act. Yes, it was also a hugely entertaining crime caper, all the better for being based on fact, exciting and often very funny but it was so much more; proof that television can sometimes leave the current cinema trailing in its wake.

Having watched a film or series last year, about the very same thing, it was the names that pulled me into watching this one, so it's difficult not to compare.

Not much varies from the main story (of course it shouldn't), but perhaps more was made of the friction within the team and the victim impact.

It's easy to see this crime as a little glamourised due to the age of the felons, a little cheeky last go

By far the best TV drama in years. Timothy Spall was absolutely amazing and even said the 'C' word in the last episode....lol. The casting was genius and the drama intense. I'll not give anything away but this has to be viewed and I'll be surprised if this mini-series along with the actors doesn't pull some BAFTA awards the next time around. Absolutely brilliant, well done ITV.

I love reconstruction of true crime so that's right up my street and with a big score straight away, every single actor in this was superb, the combination of Cranham and Spall as old boys was genius. BASIL couldn't have been more perfect and The security guard who was called out to Hatton Garden that night is a new and fine actor too. I'm glad it came out eventually after the two year delay. Must be watched more than once, well that's in my opinion anyway 😁.

Oh what a shame! A true crime story is normally just my thing and add in the twist that the record-breaking 2015 heist was pulled off by pensioners and there's a great story here. And let's give credit where credit is due. The mechanics of how the crime was executed and how the gang were ultimately brought to justice were well explained. So what failed to float my boat?

Although aged, the perpetrators of the Hatton Garden burglary were experienced career criminals. As mentioned on several occasions, the crime was three years in planing and there is the first missed opportunity. A single 30 second scene in a 4 hour mini-series was given over to this meticulous planing.

This was probably because had more coverage been given, the bungling, stereotypical east end criminal gang would have seemed all the more farcical. We had the world's worst driver/lookout, bickering like school kids, while executing the robbery and finally the final bit of plausibility exiting stage-left.

One of the gang nearly suffers a diabetic coma during the robbery. The same guy is of course sensible enough to carry his medicines with him, so one of his colleagues is able to supply the necessary glucose injection just in the nick of time. Obviously a £200M burglary lacks drama for the writers.

So a true story, spoiled for me by unconvincing characters. That's just bad writing.

Oh, and for a bit of fun, take a close look at episode three when two of the gang are excitedly going through the newspaper coverage of their crime. That couldn't have been the photo of Prince Andrew with his arm around the young lady he never met back in the papers of 2015, could it?

A great script and memorable acting from Timothy Spall and David Hayman playing men who know it's madness but just have to steal big - it's what they do.

All 4 episodes were fantastically well written and well balanced with each episode giving you what most would think a very real portrayal of a load of old lags doing what they couldn't stop doing . One thing that comes over in reality is that these are a bunch of greedy , thoughtless and selfish people that cared nothing for the lives ruined . We know the end and great they were caught !

First episode was entertaining. I'm looking forward to hearing some of the actual conversations that were had after the heist by the fated squad.

This is no doubt one of the very best British TV drama. Everything from the directing to the acting is just superb. Everyone of the gang are superbly acted, should have won many awards. A must watch!

There have been numerous other versions of this true life heist, but none gets anywhere near the quality of this one. Thanks to a sharp screenplay, outstanding direction and superb acting, Hatton Garden is gripping, amusing, entertaining but most of all creates lots of tension despite the fact that the events are so well known. Seeing two well known Scots actors holding their own as Londoners against the rest of the cast was very satisfying. And it was nice to see Timothy Spall working with his erstwhile Auf Wiedersehen Pet colleague Christopher Fairbank again, albeit briefly. Full credit, too, to the two lighting cameramen who created a really claustrophobic atmosphere in the bowels of the safe vault. Loved it when the guys were almost too big to get through the drill hole. Great stuff.

An audacious group of retired thieves and robbers unite to pull off a huge heist during The Easter weekend of 2015.

It's a very well made, very well acted series. I imagine bits of it were dramatised, but having read up extensively about it, they seemed to stick to the core.

If I'm honest, I think parts one and two drag a little, they could really have condensed them into one, parts three and four however are excellent. It gets better and better as it progresses.

Part four reveals the tensions and rivalries that exist, the term about thieves falling out had never been more true, you'll wonder if they'd have been a little wiser, and less greedy, it they'd have gotten away with it.

Timothy Spall and Kenneth Cranham stand out for me, but the whole cast are excellent.

8/10.

Nicely made and very well acted. Despite being based on an actual case there was plenty of dramatic tension all through. Four episodes was just about the right length.

Especially strong on the relationships between the criminals.

It was a bit hard to accept how the security failed so badly, and the police characters were rather superficial and perhaps the writers missed out on something there, but if they had created more drama some would have criticised it for departing too much from the real story.

Another slightly thin area was the fact that there was focus only on one of the victims of the crime.

But all this can be forgiven, and overall it was an excellent production and highly recommended.