There’s Something Going On In Kent – As this episode of The Gold begins, Kenneth Noye (Jack Lowden) picks up some of the gold bars. Marnie (Stefanie Martini) and John Palmer (Tom Cullen) celebrate when they see the Scadlynn commercial on television. When she says she hopes it isn’t too expensive, she is told this stuff pays for itself. Edwyn Cooper (Dominic Cooper) tells Isabelle (Ruth Bradley) that he’ll be away for the night because he is going to Wales. Bryan Reader (James Nelson-Joyce) says hello to Kenny who buys him a drink. John Palmer tries to buy gold on the street with help from Garth Chappell.

At the Guyerzeller Bank in Zurich, Switzerland, Edwyn is told the account operates under a code word, but they’ll need a name for internal use. Edwyn gives Gordon Parry (Sean Harris) the pen to sign the paperwork. Kenny visits Jeannie Savage (Dorothy Atkinson) with flowers and says he is sorry for her loss. There is a for sale sign outside the house. Jeannie admits it is like a dagger through her heart. It hasn’t been a great few months because she lost a husband and will be losing her house. She needs debts chasing and she is willing to give Kenny half. Kenny offers her a job instead. Henry goes to the office of Constantino Precious Metals Limited.

Kenny goes outside to call the others. When he asks if they’re ready, they all say yes. DCI Brian Boyce (Hugh Bonneville) tells the team that they’re looking for six robbers and three tons of gold. They already have MacAvoy and Robinson so they’re looking for four robbers. DCI Boyce wants to arrest them at the same time and tells their wives they’re going to Hackney nick. That’ll give them more time to question them until their lawyers arrive. In Swanley, Kent, Kenny talks to a police officer because he thinks the Flying Squad might be poking about the Brink’s-Mat job. He is told they’re not doing it in Kent. Will Taylor (Dan Li) represents the two arrested men and quickly gives Boyce alibis.

John calls Kenny to tell him he has to speed it up. Kenny reveals he ordered that thing from Hatton Garden to knock off the numbers. Kenny says his lot hasn’t had a peep. He wants John’s lot to keep their heads down and not buy anything flashy. Once John arrives, he sees a flashy car outside the house. DC Nicki Jennings (Charlotte Spencer) reminds DCI Boyce that more gold will be getting turned into money every day and they’re doing nothing about it. Boyce tells Nicki and Tony Brightwell (Emun Elliott) that will only happen if they manage to sell it back into the market. The only people who will notice will be the gold and precious metals division at Customs.

When Tony asks if they can speak to them, DCI Boyce says Customs thinks they’re corrupt so they won’t tell them anything. Later, Archie Osbourne (Daniel Ings) approaches them to say they’re waiting for his boss. He confirms they handle gold and he thinks they’re covering the Brink’s-Mat Robbery. Archie doesn’t think his boss will help them. Marnie and John argue about the car she bought. He wants her to take it back. John says they can have any car they want, but they need some time. Marnie agrees to let him take it back. Archie goads Tony and Nicki when his boss doesn’t help them. They try to get information from Archie instead.

Archie doubts they’d move the gold without removing the serial numbers so they may use a portable smelter. They would’ve gotten it from Hatton Garden. Isabelle tells Edwyn about the flats at Chelsea Harbour. Although they have to go to the school on Wednesday, Edwyn says he has another trip away. They argue about their daughter’s school because Edwyn doesn’t want her to go there. Tony and Nicki meet Al to see if anyone has ordered a smelter for cash. They eventually learn that they gave a fake name and paid cash. When they were told it’d take a week to come from the factory in Worcestershire, they said they’d pick it up themselves.

DCI Boyce tells Gordon Stewart (Peter Davison) that he needs a bug and pursuit vehicle flown over from Belfast today so they can bug the smelter tonight. Then, they can follow whoever picks it up tomorrow. They don’t want to do that. CS Cath McLean (Amanda Drew) reminds him that John Fordham and his team are on it. Stewart eventually agrees to let them do it, but they have to use what they have. Marnie tries to get John to stay in. He tells her she’ll still look like that in the morning and they’ll be richer. Gordon tells Edwyn that he never thought he’d own his own wharf. Edwyn says it is too slow, but Gordon insists it’ll be slower during the planning.

Edwyn says they have to keep finding places for the money to go in order for this to work. Nicki and Tony wait in the car while talking about Tony’s past. Nicki complains about how she was held back because she was a woman. Sienna Rose (Ellora Torchia) shows Edwyn Cooper around a property that he decides to buy. He also agrees to buy the furniture package through the Conran Shop. Nicki and Tony see the vehicle with the smelter so they’re told to follow it. They soon have trouble keeping up with it. DCI Boyce admits it is hard to keep up without a pursuit vehicle. They soon learn that the vehicle has a false plate that was stolen from a lorry a few weeks ago.

Tony informs them that the driver isn’t going to South London. As they continue pursuing the vehicle, they end up getting stopped at a railroad crossing and lose the vehicle. Marnie looks through John’s stuff until she finds his gold bars. He interrupts her to call them beautiful. DCI Boyce tells Cath that this doesn’t end with the robbers. She tells him to come to her the next time he needs something. John tells Marnie that he is still trying to get the mix right. She reminds him that neither could’ve dreamt of the life they have now. Edwyn and his wife go to the school. The woman in charge complains about property developers trying to buy the old wing and convert it into flats.

Garth wants to withdraw 100,000 in 50s from the Scadlynn account. He hands the money over to Brian Reader later. Nicki and Tony return to the station and apologize to DCI Boyce for losing the smelter. They’re told they can’t mention it to Kent police because the birds will start singing. Kenny waits for Jeannie to get ready before Brian enters and tells Kenny about his disguise. Once Jeannie comes down, Kenny tells her to go back up and try to disguise herself. Micky McAvoy (Adam Nagaitis) gets visits from two girls reminding him of how much time he is going to get. He offers them a nice house in the country to wait for him. Kenny tells Jeannie that people like them have to fight twice as hard to get anything and keep it.

He never thought he’d see the day when Jeannie would let them take her house when all she needs to do is stick it in the bank. He waits on her while she goes inside. Nicki isn’t happy to see that Tony has bananas. She suggests they get a bacon sandwich and he agrees. When Kenny gets home, he gets a call from Micky who wants two houses for his women. Once they get to the vendor, Tony says hello to Dave who asks what they’re doing down there. Nicki claims they’re on their way to the coast. John sees a woman walking her dog near his property. DCI Boyce visits Archie to tell him he was right about the smelter so he wants to add him to his task force.

He is asked to go through every suspicious gold transaction he has since the day of the robbery. Edwyn talks to Gordon about buying the houses for Micky. Gordon says he might accept the 25 years and everything else will move on if they buy him the houses. They show the women the properties and remind Kath not to have parties. They also plead with Jackie to keep her head down. Edwyn says this is a mistake. Gordon says you can’t make a mistake if you have no choice. Tony asks Nicki how Micky knew her dad. Nicki tells him that her old man was the worst villain in England. Once Tony sees Brian Reader behind them, they return to DCI Boyce to tell him.

Boyce asks the team if they know someone who works in Kent and doesn’t work there now. Once they find a man, Nicki and Tony are told not to give him names. Sienna congratulates Edwyn on buying the property. She tells him how she got the job and how London is changing. Tony and Nicki interview the man to try to learn more about Kent. They show him a list of the other four robbers. He quickly says no to most of the names. Then, he says if one man is involved he’ll have his mate doing the gold. They’re told the man’s name is Kenneth Noye. Boyce calls to get everything they have on Noye. He tells Nicki and Tony that Kenneth has protection while many of them don’t.

Kenneth plays darts with Dave who tells him about seeing the Flying Squad down there. Garth returns to the bank to get 300,000. The teller has to check to see if they have it. The man in charge says they’ve raised their concerns. He says he’ll call it in and go higher this time. George visits John and nearly enters his workshop, but Marnie stops him before he can. George tells her that he is there on official duty. John hears them so he rushes to hide the gold. Once John comes out, George says they’d had a call from a dog walker about the smoke. John tries to give him a piece of jewelry, but Marnie thinks he should apologize. John agrees so George can get back out there and get the real crooks.

Edwyn’s wife complains about him buying the wing. He says he’ll do something tasteful with it. She wants to know where he got the money. They argue briefly until he leaves. Marnie tells John she doesn’t know why he is still working like that. John tells her about his dad and how he made sure the other kids didn’t ask about him again. The only way he could stop from becoming that was to get money. He insists it isn’t going to last forever. Then, he’ll be too far gone so he’ll never catch him. Edwyn invites Sienna over because he wants to make cash purchases, spruce them up, and sell them. He offers to pay her whatever commission she is getting here.

When she asks if it is legal, he reminds her he is a lawyer. Sienna believes that only means he knows what laws he is breaking. He is in the midst of an emancipation so there is no limit to what he might offer. Boyce and the others go through the files on Kenneth, but don’t find much. Archie arrives to say a man flew from England to Jersey two months ago. He went to a bank and bought 11 bars of gold before going to another bank where he left the gold in a safety deposit box. Then, he flew home. He begins telling them how the robbers would have to remove the serial numbers. They’ll buy more gold to get a receipt for that. If they get stopped moving the unmarked stolen gold, they can show a receipt for it.

That allows them to make multiple trips to the crooked gold merchant. They’ll have to go to a registered gold importer to get a paper trail for a vast amount of pure gold. They’ll convince this person to make fake importation paperwork for them. That allows them to have the gold certified for sale by an assay. Once the gold is marked, they can sell it to a bullion wholesaler. There are only four in the country and one is Johnson Matthey which will be buying its gold back. Archie insists the gold is all around them in jewelry and other items. He tells them what they’ll do with the money from the sales.

He warns them that the process will get faster until the money and gold are gone like it never happened. He gives them a month or two at most. Boyce wants Jersey CID. Kenneth asks DI Neville Carter (Sean Gilder) about the Flying Squad and the robbery. He is told it is a special task force under Brian Boyce. Kenneth and John talk about him getting closer to Kenneth than ever. John asks how they get to him. Kenny says they can’t get to him and he isn’t going to stop. John says they won’t stop either. Edwyn tries to teach himself to swim. Kenny says it is a race.

 

The Gold Review

The second episode of The Gold didn’t offer any noticeable improvements over the previous episode. If anything, the story is becoming more convoluted and less interesting. For a show that is based on the fascinating Brink’s-Mat robbery, The Gold couldn’t be duller. The show’s story strays too far from the truth to the point that it sometimes doesn’t even seem like it is set in England in the 1980s.

The cast is spectacular with the likes of Dominic Cooper, Jack Lowden, Emun Elliott, Hugh Bonneville, and others, but they’re not given space to shine due to the restrictive script. The story is pieced together in a way that creates an uneventful, uninformative story with a lot of unnecessary scenes with uninteresting, fictional characters.

There was so much potential for The Gold with the captivating story, excellent cast, and exciting time period, but the 2019 television mini-series The Hatton Garden Heist is superior in every possible way. Unless things change quickly in the next episode, it wouldn’t be surprising to see viewers tune out before reaching The Gold at the end of the rainbow.

The episode scores a 4.5 out of 10. Recaps of The Gold will be available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our work at this link. Learn more about advertising opportunities on Reel Mockery here.