The Gold, BBC's new drama, is here to fill the Happy Valley-shaped hole in your life

We’re all mourning the loss of Happy Valley, right?

Sally Wainwright’s gripping, gritty and unforgettable drama reached its conclusion last weekend and, we’re told, there won’t be a fourth series. So, how are we going to fill our Sunday evenings from now on? How can the Beeb possibly fill the enormous gap left by Sarah Lancashire and co?

Well, by replacing it with another new six-part crime series, perhaps. Whether The Gold will prove as popular as the sordid goings-on in the Calderdale remain to be seen, but it can at least boast a plot based on fact and a cast to die for. It’s been written by Neil Forsyth, whose previous projects include Guilt and Eric, Ernie & Me, and is directed by Aneil Katia, who won an Oscar for his work on Riz Ahmed’s short film The Long Goodbye.

“The fact that we have assembled such a talented and exciting ensemble cast is testament to Neil’s incisive interrogation of one of the most infamous robberies in British history and the remarkable events which came in its wake,” claimed Tommy Bulfin, the BBC’s Commissiong Editor, when the project was announced last year. “And to have the brilliant Aneil Karia join fresh from his Oscar win is the icing on the cake. The BBC One audience are in for a real treat when this hits the screen.”

Hugh Bonneville, Dominic Cooper, Jack Lowden, Charlotte Spencer and Emun Elliot are among those taking lead roles in the dramatisation of the Brink’s-Mat robbery. It was a shocking crime that stunned the world when the truth eventually came out – that six armed men had broken into the company’s security depot near London’s Heathrow Airport before making off with gold bullion then worth £26milion, as well as cash and diamonds.

It was, at the time, the largest theft in global history, while it’s believed trying to make the loot untraceable created the world of large-scale money laundering we know today while helping to fuel the London Docklands property boom. Despite this, and the fact that murder and mayhem ensued after the heist took place, only two people have ever been convicted for their part in the event; the money has largely vanished too.

The crime has been delved into on film and TV before, but rarely in so much microscopic detail.

“This is so much more than the story of an armed robbery,” claims Piers Wenger, director of BBC Drama. “The Gold looks beyond the auspices of the theft itself to explore how the case united the criminal underworld with corporate finance, caused personal tragedy and spawned one of the most shocking, influential and mysterious cases in British criminal history.”

Bonneville plays veteran Scotland Yard cop DCI Brian Boyce, who’s brought in to lead the investigation, and while there are insights into the case from the police’s point of view, we also get to see how the ringleaders behind the theft went about their business.

Forsyth says simply of the project: “The story of the Brink’s-Mat gold is a thrilling, surprising and tragic story and I am excited to be able to tell it.”

And we can’t wait to see the fruits of his labours. Who knows, perhaps Boyce could replace Happy Valley’s Catherine Cawood in our hearts?