The Gold Season 2: what's true and what's false as the hit BBC show returns
'We found it in the archives,' he told Radio TImes. 'It's not online and has never been reported anywhere else: one of the criminals had links to the South West, and Cornish police – off the back of credible reports – conducted extensive searches of the mines. A lot of the research was piecing things together because connections weren't made at the time. I've even told Brian [Boyce, who consulted on the series] things he didn't know, which was very gratifying.'
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Wales Online
2 hours ago
- Wales Online
BBC's The Gold viewers question if Charlie Miller existed
BBC's The Gold viewers question if Charlie Miller existed The second season of the BBC's The Gold is currently airing The second season of BBC's The Gold is currently airing, and viewers are once again curious about the line between fact and fiction. Each episode begins with a disclaimer stating: "The following is inspired by real events and the many theories that have surround the gold. "Some characters, elements and chronologies have been created or changed for dramatic purposes." The new series kicks off with South London gangster Charlie Miller, portrayed by Sam Spruell, concealing the gold in an abandoned tin mine in Cornwall. He later enlists the help of shady lawyer Douglas Baxter, played by Joshua McGuire, to launder the proceeds from the remaining half of the Brink's-Mat loot, reports the Express. Here's an examination of whether Charlie Miller is based on a real person. Sam Spruell reprises his role as Charlie Miller in The Gold season 2 (Image: BBC ) Is Charlie Miller from BBC's The Gold a real person? No, Charlie Miller is a fictional character created for the series. Article continues below Actor Sam Spruell sheds light on the character, explaining: "Charlie Miller is an amalgam of various alleged southeast London criminals involved in the Brink's-Mat robbery, he is no one specific. "You see Charlie really at the end of the first series as he's one of the Brink's-Mat robbers. "He ends up at the beginning of the second series in possession of half the gold. "Throughout the first series the police thought they were dealing with all the gold but actually there is another half that Charlie Miller kept for himself." The Gold's Charlie Miller who had the other half of the Brink's-Mat loot (Image: BBC ) In the first season, Charlie enjoyed a carefree life under the sun with his initial share of the proceeds but had to return to the UK for the rest after his money ran dry. Spruell remarked about his character: "Through his criminal network in South London, of which Charlie has been a part of for years, he discovers the presence of Baxter who is cleaning small amounts of money for establishments like pubs and other places like that in south London." He pointed out: "Charlie sees this guy with his Cambridge education as the right man to clean a very large amount of money that he is going to make from getting rid of this gold." Charlie Miller was depicted as hiding the gold down an old tin mine in Cornwall (Image: BBC ) Spruell continued: "Baxter is the initial point man for that but in the end, it takes someone with Logan Campbell's clout to put that back into the financial situation in terms of investments in all kinds of stuff, whether it be fossil fuels, a new business venture or housing companies, for example." Discussing Charlie's journey in the second season, Spruell conveyed that Charlie harboured "aspirations" to transform into a "more legitimate businessman". Regarding the curious use of a Cornish tin mine as a hiding place for the Brink's-Mat gold in the series, Neil Forsyth, the show's maker, revealed that the idea stemmed from a hypothesis put forward in a feature by the Evening Standard in the 1980s. Article continues below The Gold season 2 can currently be streamed on the BBC iPlayer
New Statesman
2 days ago
- New Statesman
The Gold loses its shine
Photo by BBC / Tannadice Pictures The BBC's second series of its crime drama The Gold, about the 1983 Brink's-Mat heist, picks up where things left off: about half the loot that the robbers stole from a security depot near Heathrow remains unaccounted for. The gold – worth over £110m in today's money – turned out to be rather more than the six lads could handle, and in the first series they all (more or less) ended up paying for their greed. The show's creator, Neil Forsyth, took a calculated risk in choosing to concentrate on the robbery's aftermath, rather than the theft itself – which was dealt with in about five propulsive minutes. Instead, he homed in on the gangsters' increasingly convoluted attempts to convert the bars into the lavish lives they'd always dreamed of. This time round, the investigation is being led again by DCI Boyce (a sturdy but rather dull Hugh Bonneville), with help from perky DIs Jennings (Charlotte Spencer) and Brightwell (Emun Elliott), plus a new addition, DI Lundy (a classy Stephen Campbell Moore). In the last series, Boyce was sceptical of the talents of his underlings but came round; now, they get along famously. Still, the investigation is under threat from paper-pushers higher up, who feel it's dragging on too long, costing too much and failing to produce any wins that can be published in the newspapers. Amid a few irritating tics is the series' insistent use of the word 'villain'. Do criminals really self-identify as villains, as they do here? Do coppers chasing such villains also refer to them as villains? It seems unlikely, but they do here, over and over. On that note, the villains in our sights are John Palmer (Tom Cullen), a gold-dealer-turned-fraudster living it large in Tenerife, and Charlie Miller (Sam Spruell), a run-of-the-mill crook who, unlike Palmer, isn't a real person but an amalgam of various people. Also in play, most enjoyably, is disgraced lawyer Douglas Baxter, a fictional character played with delicious waspishness by Joshua McGuire. Baxter has been struck off, we learn, after being caught taking cocaine at a steakhouse, and he is soon persuaded by Miller to start laundering huge wodges of cash for him. More than any other character, Baxter feels decidedly imaginary: he is, he believes, one of the finest legal minds of his generation; aged eight, he was accepted into Mensa. It's hard to believe such a clever-clogs would ever consort with a low-life so obviously doomed as Miller – but Baxter is excellent company, so his lack of credibility is quickly forgiven. The series is, like its predecessor, easy on the eye, with an invigorating soundtrack and solid performances. But the script tends towards the grandiose (DCI Boyce loves a little speech), and as the action flits between London, the Caribbean, the Isle of Man, Cornwall and Tenerife, it can be hard to follow. When a bunch of dead-eyed Russians turn up in Tenerife, wanting their money laundered too, you just want them to go away and stop complicating things. After being criticised for presenting gangsters with a rosy tint in the first series, particularly the robber and killer Kenneth Noye (played with dash by Slow Horses'Jack Lowden), the second series tries to darken Noye's portrayal. In the first, Lowden's Noye was a Robin Hood type inclined to see his trade in class terms: 'That's how England works,' he remarked at one point. 'That lot have it and us lot nick it.' Noye's killing of a police officer was covered but felt random and underpowered, and the series didn't go up to 1996, when he murdered a 21-year-old on an M25 slip road. Even so, Palmer comes across as rather appealing: a 'villain', to be sure, but a warm and handsome one, who bids his colleagues goodbye at the end of the working day, loves his kids and gives his wife thoughtful presents. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe Forsyth has confirmed that there will not be a third series, and the Brink's-Mat lemon does feel sucked dry by the end of this one. Still, taken together, both series are a real achievement: not particularly innovative television, but dependable and made with palpable craft and commitment. The Gold BBC One [See also: The People's Republic of iPhone] Related
Evening Standard
5 days ago
- Evening Standard
The Gold Season 2: what's true and what's false as the hit BBC show returns
'We found it in the archives,' he told Radio TImes. 'It's not online and has never been reported anywhere else: one of the criminals had links to the South West, and Cornish police – off the back of credible reports – conducted extensive searches of the mines. A lot of the research was piecing things together because connections weren't made at the time. I've even told Brian [Boyce, who consulted on the series] things he didn't know, which was very gratifying.'
