The Gold will soon return for its second series on BBC, recounting the real-life impact that the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery had on Britain.
Hugh Bonneville, who plays DCI Brian Boyce in the drama, teases to Yahoo UK what the forthcoming episodes will explore, sharing which events will be at the centre of the true crime drama. The Brink’s-Mat robbery was one of the largest robberies in Britain where £26 million worth of gold, diamonds, and cash was stolen from a warehouse in Heathrow.
Read more: The crazy true story behind BBC drama The Gold
The first series dramatised how Mick McAvoy and his gang stole the items and the immediate aftermath, but the new series will go beyond that with the actor sharing: “In the second season we discover ostensibly where the other half of the gold went, or where some more of the money ended up in the Caribbean and in Tenerife with the whole timeshare schemes that [gold dealer] John Palmer was organising.
“And as he got bigger, bigger fish came into play and he started to launder huge amounts and was involved in bringing the first wave of ecstasy into Britain. This one incident had a huge ripple effect through society.”
Bonneville adds: “Reading the script and then reading up about it, you realise what an extraordinary impact it had as an event on British society and that the money that was eventually laundered from the smelted gold has had an effect on society ever since.
“In the first season we explored how the chain of events occurred, or rather, what happened to the gold, at each stage of the process, until the money was laundered — a huge amount went into the building of the Docklands.”
The actor was able to meet his real life counterpart Boyce for the series, saying that he was a fascinating person: “He’s a man in his 80s now, but very fit, very smart and we’ve had lunch a couple of times just to talk through [things].
“I wanted to understand how he ran his team and the the sort of tone and temperature that he used as a team leader, and he was an inspiring man to listen to. A proper old school policeman who believes that police should be the servants of society and was pretty disappointed in some of his colleagues who were corrupt or turned a blind eye to things.
“He was a man of great principle, and so it was a privilege to get to meet him and to learn a bit about his own experience on the case.”
Read more: What we know about The Gold series 2
The actor also reflected on how the British public’s opinion of the police changed in the wake of the robbery, adding that he feels it is unfair to completely disregard what they achieved afterwards.
“It was a privilege to get to meet [Boyce] and to learn a bit about his own experience on the case, which went on to cost the police, I can’t remember, say £50m, and so there was a lot of outcry about what a waste of police money,” he says.
“But from the £24m, or £23m of gold bars that were first stolen, yes it cost £50m but they clawed back £200m in money that has been laundered over the next 10 years, and they brought a lot of people to justice. So it’s a fascinating story, and it rumbles on.”
The BBC has not yes confirmed when the series will return, but Bonneville will be joined once again by Charlotte Spencer, Emun Elliott, Tom Cullen, Stefanie Martini and Sam Spruell in the new series.
The Gold series 1 is available to watch on BBC iPlayer now.