The Gold

If you just approach this as a contained show it's a very entertaining caper - good humor, a good balance of dumb and smart, and a satisfying level of stick it to the man and well organised deceit.

So as it stands all good.

I guess the tricky bit starts when the actual reality of the events are scrutinised, at which point it's apparent that this little bit of history has more than it's fair share of thugs and unscrupulous behaviours - amongst both the protagonists and the antagonists.

All the same, I don't think this show set out to be a docu drama or an accurate historical record of people and events - I think it set out to tell a fascinating tale based on real events and to spin an entertaining yarn from them - and that it does.

This show is designed to appeal to people who enjoy a good heist drama - and if you fall into that demograph I doubt you'll be disappointed. Some great performances keep The Gold well anchored and entertaining throughout.

As Episode 1 of "The Gold" (2023 release from the UK; 6 episodes of about an hour each) opens, it is."26 November 1983" and six guys enter a warehouse near Heathrow Airport, and overwhelm the security staff. They make off with a bunch of gold bars worth £26 million (more than $120 million in today's currency). Now comes the hard part: how to convert the gold into cash? At this point we are less than 15 minutes into Episode 1.

Couple of comments: this is billed in the US as a "Paramount+ Original", but let's be clear: this is a BBC production from start to finish, from top to bottom. And what a great TV series this turned out to be. The mini-series starts with the robbery and doesn't look back as to the why or how of the robbery. Instead it focuses exclusively on the aftermath of the robbery. It affects not only the 6 robbers, but also their families and others who become entangled in the fallout. The no-star ensemble cast is terrific all the way through. Also loved the careful recreation of the early-to-mid 80s scenery in (primarily) London. And then of course there is this: how does it all play out? Will anyone get caught or will they get away with what was then the greatest robbery in England's history? Just watch!

"The Gold" aired on BBC in early 2023, to immediate critical acclaim. It currently is rated 91% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and for good reason. "The Gold" recently started airing on Paramount+ and I just finished it last evening. If you have any interest in true crime drama or simply yearn for a terrific classic BBC tv series, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

For once we get a BBC police drama that is not stuffed with the latest modern cliches to make it more 'now' and 'authentic' and in which the direction, script and acting are not noticeably produced by the same sausage machine. In many respect The Gold really is several cuts above yer standard BBC fare. But it does have its flaws.

The first of these has been highlighted by other reviewers: for some reason the 'villains' - Noye and Palmer in particular - are sympathetically portrayed as somewhat loveable characters who just happen to be on the wrong side of the law. They were nothing of the kind: partners, mistresses and associates are on record that both were hard, violent, cruel and ruthless.

Noye is still alive. Palmer was murdered at his home in the south of England, the victim of other gangsters he had upset once too often as he made his fortune, reputed to have been £300m.

Noye was acquitted of murdering an undercover police officer but later jailed for a 'road rage' murder. Noye was - make that is - not a nice guy and certainly not a man you would care to cross.

Such characterisation of villasin is not new, of course, and Tinseltown and television have long used that schtick to sex up their cops and robbers drama. A good example which comes to mind is 1967's Bonnie And Clyde starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway which portrays the couple as rather glamorous and heroic. In fact, their short criminal career was sordid and tragic - but that doesn't sell as well.

A second flaw of the BBC's The Gold is more serious as in a sense is it possibly more dishonest: the role of Britain's 'Establishment' is highlighted and the vicious, soulless way it looks after its own.

That is certainly the case and corruption in various police service, a main them of The Gold, is not a scriptwriter's fancy, included just to jazz up his drama. It was then and apparently still is rampant, not just in the police but in other corners of British society.

The Gold's portrayal of it, though, is what is dishonest: both Noye and Palmer, and a third villain who was a crucial element in the scheme to get rid of the gold stolen at Heathrow Airport and launder the proceeds are consciously shown partly to be motivated by sticking one up the Establishment, if kicking back at 'the system'.

From what we know of both men that is just not true: both were motivated purely by greed. They were not 'victims of the system' who were, like some kind of latter-day Robin Hoods, turning on it and giving as good as they could get.

The theme of 'a - potentially - good man' being held back because he 'didn't go to the right school' or something along those lines is perpetuated by the uncorrupt and uncorruptible copper Brian Boyce who is the nemesis of Noye and Palmer. He was a good enough enlisted man to be considered as officer material but he wasn't because he was from the wrong social drawer (runs the drama).

This second flaw does not, though, spoil a very good piece of drama. It is a flaw nothing more. The acting throughout is top-notch, there is none of that silly grandstanding which wrecks an otherwise police procedural, and the cinematography - hand-held cameras making this seem much more of a documentary than it really is - comes off well.

If only the BBC had the courage to free itself of its self-imposed restraints and make more of this kind of drama. We can hope.

...except they made it 6 episodes. I'm all for character development but it lost its way exploring the back stories of everyone, I was confused in the end who the main protagonists were and what the ultimate ending was. And now they announced a second season - let's hope this one is tighter. Even with 6 episodes, the ending seemed a little rushed, with only text on the screen providing information about prison sentences - there could have been more trial scenes at the expense of some of the non-essential Switzerland and Spain scenes.

There's nothing wrong in making a shorter series, the performances were compelling and the storyline initially was interesting enough, and I particularly liked the cultural and historical references of the times.

Neil Forsyth is an excellent writer and The Gold has assembled an excellent cast. It's a very well-written, well-performed, heavily-dramatised version of real events and works well as escapism. Where it doesn't work is when it's trying to be a lesson on class struggle in the 1980's.

Firstly, the viewer didn't ask for, and doesn't need, a one-sided, finger-wagging morality lesson on societal iniquity. Secondly, Kenneth Noye and his associates were not class warriors fighting a rigged class system; they were a demonstration of amoral violent greed that makes even the worst of the class system look relatively humane.

But don't let that put you off watching The Gold; it's very entertaining and mostly manages to remember that it's supposed to be entertainment. In a world of multiple streaming options which credit the viewer with a modicum of intelligence, it would be great to see the BBC survive and thrive. If it's able to understand that the entertainment viewer primarily wants to be entertained and isn't actually looking for a simplistic, sophomoric morality tale, it might be in with a chance.