The Gold: Half of the gold missing from Brink’s-Mat robbery
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WARNING: This article contains spoilers from BBC’s The Gold
Episode three of The Gold ended on a shocking note with the murder of police officer John Fordham (played by Hadley Fraser) at the hands of criminal Kenneth Noye (Jack Lowden). The scenes showed Noye and his wife Brenda (Nichola Burley) hearing their guard dogs barking outside, warning them of intruders on their property. Noye wandered outside and the next thing viewers saw was police racing to the house after reports of a fallen officer.
Before the credits rolled on the episode, Noye was led away by the police for Fordham’s death.
Lead detective Brian Boyce (Hugh Bonneville) was left devastated by the murder and not being on the frontline instead of in the office.
What really happened to John Fordham?
Much like in the BBC show, Fordham was a surveillance police officer and working undercover as part of the Brink’s-Mat operation.
He and another officer moved into Noye’s garden when they disturbed the dogs, which attracted the criminal’s attention.
Noye stabbed Fordham with a knife with the police officer dying two hours later.
In court, Noye was acquitted of the murder and claimed he acted in self-defence after Fordham attacked him.
Clarkson said about the scenes of Fordham’s death in The Gold: “The killing of the policeman was handled by the TV drama from a very non-committal way.
“Even though they made clear Noye had done it, they didn’t show any of it. They didn’t actually show the killing.
“They just went from him going from the bushes and the next thing you know, the bloke’s dead.”
The journalist and author of The Curse of Brink’s-Mat continued: “I remember thinking at the time, ‘Hang on, they’ve just completely avoided the issue of him actually killing that guy’.”
Adding: “It’s quite clumsy too but then I know so much about the material that it probably didn’t bother anyone else. Dramatically, they did get away with it but only just.”
Clarkson also addressed the underlying theme of class warfare between working-class south Londoners and the establishment with the Brink’s-Mat criminals constantly making reference to this.
He said: “That’s a bit of cliché actually because if you go back to The Great Train Robbery, which was sort of the mother of all crimes in criminal terms, this has always been pushed.
“Partly by the figures in real life but it’s been used much more dramatically.”
The writer said both ITV’s Mrs Biggs and A Very English Scandal on BBC, which charted the Jeremy Thorpe scandal, shared this class warfare theme with The Gold.
Clarkson said: “That is a thing and it’s a clear thing and in this as well.”
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Moreover, there was one scene in which Noye’s wife asked him he had joined the Freemasons, telling him he had nothing to prove to them. Again, in the drama, this showed Noye trying to climb the social ladder.
Clarkson said: “I think the way they’ve referred to Freemasonry is quite bold.
“I’m surprised they’ve been quite as critical as they have, but all of the things we’re talking about they can get out because of what I call the classic ‘Netflix, Narcos get-out’ where they say it’s not all real.”
Clarkson was referring to the title card, which is shown at the start of each episode, stating The Gold has mixed fact and fiction for dramatic effect.
The Gold airs on BBC One on Sundays at 9pm and is streaming as a boxset on the BBC iPlayer
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