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The Gold

The Gold

The real story behind Brink’s-Mat: Britain’s biggest heist

Summary

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The real story that inspired the BBC drama, The Gold


On Saturday, 26 November 1983, an armed gang stole gold bullion worth almost £26 million from the Brink's-Mat security depot near London's Heathrow Airport. It was the largest robbery in world history, and only the start of an extraordinary story. For forty years, myths and legends have grown around the Brink's-Mat heist and the events that followed.

The heist led to a wave of international money laundering, provided dirty money that helped fuel the London Docklands property boom, caused seismic changes in both British crime and policing, and has been linked to a series of deaths that continued until 2015.

The Gold is the conclusion of extensive research and includes exclusive testimony from one of the original robbers who gives his version of events for the first time. The result is the astonishing true story of the robbery of the century.

©2023 Neil Forsyth & Thomas Turner (P)2023 Penguin Audio

About the authors

Neil Forsyth

Neil Forsyth is a screenwriter and author. He has written seven books, and created a number of television shows, including the critically acclaimed, BAFTA-winning drama Guilt. He is the writer and creator of The Gold, the BBC dramatisation of the Brink's-Mat story.
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Thomas Turner

Thomas Turner is a writer and historian of popular culture. He has written two books. Educated at the universities of Oxford and London, he teaches history and cultural studies in London. He provides research for television projects and was the researcher for the BBC drama The Gold.
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