Heist drama The Gold is a non-precious piece starring Hugh Bonneville

The Brink’s-Mat robbery of 1983 — one of the most lucrative heists in British history — was less a product of meticulous planning and execution than sheer blind luck. After raiding a security depot near Heathrow Airport, six small-time gangsters were expecting to make off with a relatively modest cash haul. What they found, to their surprise, were three tonnes of gold bullion worth £26mn. 

The fallout of the theft is the basis of The Gold, a new six-part BBC drama. But if the thieves get more than they bargained for, the opposite is true for us viewers. Following the heist — which plays out in a tense introduction — the suspense dims scene by scene as the series compensates for its procedural rhythms with cumbersome commentary on crime and class in Britain’s stratified society. With exchanges and characters often serving as vehicles for exposition or laboured thematic points, the show soon feels gridlocked in its three main narrative lanes.

The first focuses on the efforts of a special task force led by starchy detective Brian Boyce (Hugh Bonneville) as they track down the culprits and their haul through shakedowns, stake-outs and plenty of sitting around a whiteboard as someone excitedly draws lines to the words “gold” and “money”. More compelling is the strand following the intricate chain established by fence Kenny Noye (Jack Lowden). He disguises the loot, recirculates it in the market and launders the profits, all while insistently expounding on “how England works”.

Kenny’s operations are then rather tenuously linked to a subplot involving yuppie investor Edwyn (Dominic Cooper) who sees his marriage break down over 1980s economic tribalism. “The new money has power,” he gloats. “This country doesn’t change,” hits back his patrician wife.

Such overwriting ultimately cheapens what might have been an absorbing story. As it is, it doesn’t take an expert eye to discern that The Gold is an alloy of non-precious elements.

★★☆☆☆

On BBC1 from February 12 at 9pm and iPlayer thereafter

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