I've belatedly caught up with the first series of The Gold, which I missed first time around. And the first thing to say about this example of TV 'faction' is that it's extremely watchable. The acting is terrific - I don't think there's a less than excellent performance in the entire six episodes. The series was created and written by Neil Forsyth, and on the whole the script is excellent, despite some flaws.
The story is based on the Brink's Mat gold bullion heist of 1983 and it's made clear from the outset that although it's based on real events, some characters and 'element's have been created or changed for dramatic purposes. My general feeling about this approach to writing is that it's fair enough: the real question is how well the writer tells the story. I accept, however, that the result is often closer to fiction than what actually happened. For instance, the writer has to be very careful about how people in the story who are still alive are portrayed. You can bet that there will be a very proper anxiety about avoiding libel, although of course this can lead to some parts of the story being sanitised. There's definitely a danger that viewers will assume that the portrayal of people and incidents is closer to reality than is actually the case.
The Gold has, perhaps not surprisingly, been criticised in some quarters for soft-pedalling on its presentation of criminality. The two most interesting criminals in the story are Kenneth Noye and John 'Goldfinger' Palmer and both men are portrayed by exceptionally charismatic actors, Jack Lowden and Tom Cullen, so inevitably the characters on screen seem more appealing than I imagine their real life equivalents are or were. It's a casting choice that seems questionable to me, even though Lowden and Cullen are absolutely terrific. In contrast, Sean Harris as Gordon Parry exudes menace from start to finish, and his portrayal seems rather more likely to be close to the truth.
More debatable, though, is Neil Forsyth's decision to add a layer to his storytelling which involves portraying the villains, quite repetitively, as class warriors. Those who are still alive might like to rationalise their actions that way, but overall the effect of the many set-piece speeches comes across as inauthentic. An attempt at 'fine writing' that, for me, failed to work, despite Forsyth's obvious talents.
And those talents are considerable. He's very good at his portrayal of the cops. Hugh Bonneville is at his compelling and humane best as the lead detective, Boyce, while his sidekicks played by Emur Elliot and Charlotte Spencer are excellent. Spencer is especially impressive, one of the stand-outs in a cast of uniformly talented actors, although the character she plays is invented, and to some extent a 21st century idea of what an appealing female cop of the 80s might have been like.
The Gold is, I think, best regarded as an entertaining thriller loosely based on a real life crime, even though my guess is that Neil Forsyth had additional aspirations. The points the script makes about class and aspiration were made more cleverly in The Long Good Friday, which was not based on real life and perhaps all the better for it. But viewed primarily as entertainment, The Gold is very good indeed, and I shall definitely watch series 2.
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