One of the best things on telly in 2023, smash-hit BBC heist drama The Gold told the gripping and barely believable true-story of the notorious Brink’s-Mat robbery. In 1983, a group of robbers ripped off a Heathrow warehouse expecting a decent but unspectacular haul, and ended up making off with £26 million in gold bullion.
While the first season charted the blindsided criminals upscaling their operation in a hurry to fence the gold as a special police unit tracked them down, series 2 picks up at the end of the ’80s with half the gold still missing and the police back on the trail. This time, international locations from the Caribbean to the Canary Islands will be splashing some golden light on this compelling story of ill-gotten gold.
Showrunner/writer Neil Forsyth talks us through the key locations used to tell the continuing story of the Brink’s-Mat gold.
What is the plot of The Gold series 2?
Season 1 villains Dominic Cooper and Sean Harris step aside as the spotlight falls on a new band of wrong’uns, all scrambling around to turn their ill-gotten treasure into untraceable currency. Chief among them is Tom Cullen as John Palmer, an aspirational Brummie who has evolved from season 1’s gold smelter to a slick property magnate sunning it up on the Canary Isle of Tenerife.
One of the lesser-spotted Brink’s-Mat gang, Charlie Miller (Legend’s Sam Spruell) comes into his own, too. The series opens with Miller heading to his native West Country with half the gold in tow, looking for a spot to hide his loot.
Hot on both their heels is Hugh Bonneville’s dogged, intuitive detective DCI Brian Boyce, fighting to keep his task force going as senior cops pressure him to wrap up the investigation. His small team is made up of odd-couple sleuthing partners DI Tony Brightwell (Emun Elliott) and DI Nicki Jennings (Charlotte Spencer).
Where was The Gold season 2 filmed?
After a first season focused in and around London, series 2 packs its sunscreen and passport and heads further afield. Tenerife in Canary Islands is the key location – playing both itself and the Caribbean – while the Home Counties and Sussex also play host to the gripping drama. 'The first series was very much a show set around London and the Home Counties,’ says Forsyth. ’In the second series, we open it up to all these international worlds.’
The Cornish cottage was filmed at Wormsley Estate, Buckinghamshire
Series 2 opens with Charlie Miller visiting an old jail mate, Danny (Dickie Beau), in his Cornish cottage, looking for help hiding his loot. The cottage was actually filmed on this expansive country estate in the Chiltern Hills. ‘It’s a remarkable set-up,’ says Forsyth. ‘It felt incredibly rural.’
The Cornish moors were shot on the South Downs
In episode 1, Danny and Miller head out onto the Cornish moors to scour old tin mines for a hiding place. The ‘mine’ itself is actually Reigate Caves in Surrey, while the South Downs stood in for the wider Cornish vistas. ‘The tin mine story is fantastic,’ says Forsyth. ‘Our researcher ploughed through newspaper archives and dug out this story from The Evening Standard in the 1980s, saying that Cornish police had been conducting a search of the mines because one of the robbers had West Country links. I took that and made it an integral part of our opening episode.’
The car yard dig was shot at a motor dealership in Edgware
Desperately following even suspect tip-offs, DCI Boyce and his team dig up a London car yard looking for the gold. That scene was filmed in Edgware.
John Palmer’s villa is on the island of Tenerife
Tenerife is where, in real life, John Palmer set himself up as a legitimate businessman selling time shares at the pointedly named El Dorado complex. ‘[The property] we used for Palmer’s villa was in the northwest of the island,’ says Forsyth. ‘ It was very important to show the opulence of his lifestyle. The views up to one of the huge volcanic islands and down over the water were absolutely stunning. I’d come back at night and my son would be on Tom Cullen’s shoulders in the swimming pool.’
The El Dorado scenes were filmed in a more traditional tourist area in the southwest of the island. ‘We did this big chase sequence in a hotel that had tourists in it,’ remembers Forsyth, ‘because we weren’t in position to shut down an entire hotel in peak season. You can see people by the pool looking a bit confused.’
The Caribbean island of Tortola was filmed on Tenerife
Another season 2 storyline takes place on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. Here, Tom Hughes’s bon vivant deals with dirty money from drug cartels and steps in to do the same for the Brink’s-Mat crew. The Caribbean island was also shot on Tenerife, albeit in a lusher corner of the island. ‘Tenerife has an incredible array of geography,’ notes Forsyth. ‘We shot a lot around the capital Santa Cruz and it’s a beautiful old town, but go up into the mountains and there’s these incredible valleys that suddenly feel very tropical.’
The private jet scenes were filmed at White Waltham Airfield, Berkshire
Willing to put his wealth to ostentatious use, John Palmer commutes from Tenerife to the UK by private jet. Those scenes were filmed at White Waltham Airfield. ‘Period private jets are hard to find, but the production value we got from that was incredible: the bathroom actually came with those gold fittings, we didn't put them in,’ says the showrunner. Brighton City Airport, meanwhile. Stood in for Douglas Airport on the Isle of Man.
The Sussex seaside town of Hastings stood in for the Isle of Man
The Isle of Man plays a key role in the series, with McGuire’s disgraced financial advisor taking advantage of the island’s looser laws to spin his gold laundering scheme. ‘We shot those scenes in Hastings,’ says Forsyth. ‘You have to be creative. The seafront in Douglas on the Isle of Man and the seafront in Hastings are remarkably similar. We're not making a show like The Crown, where it's famous people in famous places and you really have to match them, otherwise the viewer is going to be discombobulated.’
Baxter and Miller’s pub rendezvous takes place at The Black Prince in Kennington
A tense early encounter between robber Charlie Miller and fraudster Douglas Baxter was filmed in this Kennington pub – once the location of a big fight scene in Kingsman: The Secret Service. ‘It's just a lovely looking building,’ says Forsyth. ‘We shot a scene between Dominic Cooper and Sean Harris in the first series there too.’ Does the pub have its own Brink’s-Mat folklore? ‘As with any well-established South London pub, I don’t think you'd have to work hard to find some sort of tangential connection to the story.’
The Palmers’ UK home was filmed at a private house in Reigate
Other UK locations used in season 2 include Ravenscourt Park, where Boyce walks en route to a Downing Street summit with the Home Secretary, and Swakeley’s House in Uxbridge, which stood in for the interior Downing Street shots. ‘You find is yourself going further and further out from London to find locations that look like old London,’ says Forsyth. ‘Period is much harder, because it's very hard to clear streets of vehicles.’
Who else stars in season 2?
Downton Abbey’s Stephen Campbell Moore is another new addition to the cast as maverick cop Tony Lundy, whose unorthodox approach causes friction in Boyce’s team. Joshua McGuire (About Time) is disgraced financial advisor Douglas Baxter, who helps enlist Caribbean-based fraudster Logan Campbell (Victoria’s Tom Hughes) to help Miller launder his money.
Stefanie Martini returns as Palmer’s long-suffering wife, Marnie, while Jack Lowden is back as the gang’s one-time ringleader, Kenneth Noye. Dickie Beau plays Danny, a Cornish accomplice of Miller’s drawn into the story, while Joshua Samuels plays Jerren, John Palmer’s chauffeur and self-appointed bodyguard, who may have ambitions of his own.
Overseeing Boyce’s investigation with increasing reluctance are senior cops Assistant Commissioner Gordan Stewart (Peter Davison) and Commander Cath McLean (Amanda Drew).
When is season 2 on TV?
Episode 1 airs on BBC 1 on Sunday, June 8 at 9pm, with episode 2 landing at the same time on Tuesday, June 10. Episode 4 airs at 9pm on June 15, and episode 5 lands at the same time on June 16. The final two instalments of the six-episode season are so far undated.
And if you can’t wait, the whole series will be available to binge on BBC iPlayer at 6am on June 8.
Will there be a third series of The Gold?
No, the story wraps up with season 2 – with no plans for a third run. Or as Forsyth puts it: ‘Sadly, they can't find a third half of the gold.’
Is there a trailer?
There is, and you can watch it below.
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