The Gold: Half of the gold missing from Brink's-Mat robbery
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WARNING: This article contains spoilers from The Gold
BBC series The Gold features police detective Nikki Jennings (played by Charlotte Spencer), who is assigned to the Brink’s-Mat robbery taskforce to retrieve the stolen haul with many viewers curious to know what happened to her. Nikki is a tenacious officer, who has had to work harder than her male counterparts. She is a key part of the Brink’s-Mat taskforce as she fights against misogyny to prove herself.
In the show, Nikki also had to fight against the prejudice of her father Billy Jennings (Danny Webb) who was a gangster.
Nikki took a very different direction to her father and had to prove she wasn’t like him.
Much like the criminals she was trying to catch, Nikki shared a similar background to them and understood their mentality.
Nonetheless, she was eager to climb the ladder and even pushed her boss to go to Sierra Leone to investigate the so-called mine John Palmer (Tom Cullen) was supposedly sourcing his gold product.
Where is Nikki Jennings now?
Speaking about the character of the policewoman, Neil Forsyth said: “Jennings is a composite character based on interviews I did with a number of female former detectives who worked on the case.
“The one area of the Met Police where there were a significant number of female detectives at the time was in surveillance, as they were seen as less likely to catch criminals’ attention.
“The women I spoke to were very helpful in talking about their experiences and I put a lot of that into the Jennings character.”
So, sadly, this means she doesn’t exist and was created for the purposes of the series.
She isn’t the only composite character to be included in The Gold, lawyer Edwyn Cooper (Dominic Cooper), who helped to launder the money made from the stolen gold was another fictitious figure.
Edwyn was also based on several real-life people rather than just one person from the case.
Forsyth went on to say about his research: “I spoke to a large number of people who were involved in the story in different ways.
“By and large, they were very open and happy to talk about their experiences.”
One real-life figure key to the drama is senior police officer Brian Boyce (Hugh Bonneville), who led the Brink’s-Mat investigation.
Forsyth said: “By far, the most important person that we tracked down and spoke to was Brian Boyce.”
The writer said it was “very helpful” to get Boyce’s insight into the case and the police investigation and made a huge difference.
The show finished with Jennings, Boyce and Tony Brightwell (Emun Elliott) pondering their next move after realising the gang only ever had half the gold.
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The huge stash worth £26million had been split after it was initially taken with half of it disappearing into thin air, while the other portion was laundered.
The team contemplated where to look next for the gold with them realising it all went back to the six men in the van, who carried out the original robbery.
This scene seemed to leave the story open-ended with potentially more to be told in another series.
Forsyth said there was “certainly still story to tell” but admitted he’d had to “see what happens”.
The Gold: The real story behind Brink’s-Mat by Neil Forsyth and Thomas Turner is out now (Ebury Spotlight).
The Gold airs on BBC One on Sundays at 9pm and is streaming as a boxset on the BBC iPlayer
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