The Great Train Robbery (2013 film)

The Great Train Robbery
DVD cover
Genre	Drama
Based on	Great Train Robbery
Written by	Chris Chibnall
Directed by	Julian Jarrold James Strong
Starring	See Cast
Theme music composer	Paul Englishby Glenn Gregory
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	2
Production
Producer(s)	Julia Stannard
Cinematography	George Richmond Gary Shaw
Editor(s)	Mark Eckersley Billy Sneddon
Running time	185 minutes (A Robber's Tale: 92 minutes; A Copper's Tale: 93 minutes)
Production company(s)	World Productions
Release
Original network	BBC One BBC One HD
Original release	18 – 19 December 2013
External links
Website	www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03mk394

The Great Train Robbery is a British television film in two parts,^[1] that was first broadcast on BBC One on 18 and 19 December 2013. Written by Chris Chibnall, it tells the story of the Great Train Robbery on 8 August 1963, first from the perspective of the robbers, and then from the perspective of the police. Coincidentally, the first part, A Robber's Tale, was shown on the same day that train robber Ronnie Biggs died.^[2][3][4]

Plot

A Robber's Tale is set between November 1962 and the aftermath of the Great Train Robbery on 8 August 1963. Beginning at London Heathrow Airport where the big practice robbery took place, Bruce Reynolds (Luke Evans) gathered a group of men to target the Royal Mail train heading between Glasgow and London.^[1]

A Copper's Tale begins in the early morning of 8 August 1963 after the train robbery took place. Six of the best police officers from Scotland Yard are called to help with the investigation, with DCS Tommy Butler (Jim Broadbent) in charge.^[1]

Cast

The cast of "A Robber's Tale"

The cast of "A Copper's Tale"

Production

The Great Train Robbery was commissioned by Ben Stephenson, controller of BBC Drama, and Danny Cohen, controller of BBC One.^[5][6] The executive producers are Simon Heath for World Productions, the company behind the series, and Polly Hill for the BBC.^[6] Julia Stannard is the producer of the two ninety-minute films.^[6]

The two films were first due to be broadcast in August 2013, on the 50th anniversary of the train robbery, but was postponed to December 2013 because of scheduling issues.^[7] The production was inspired by the book Signal Red by Robert Ryan.

Filming

Filming began in Yorkshire in March 2013.^[6] Various parts of Leeds city centre were used, such as the Adelphi public house, the Calls, Briggate, Hyde Park Picture House and other parts of Hyde Park.^[8] The Keighley and Worth Valley Railway was used as Sears Crossing, where the actual robbery took place.^[8] Other scenes were filmed at Bradford, Shipley, Haworth and Goole.^[8] Filey was used instead of Torquay for the scenes involving Reynolds' hideout.^[8] According to the BBC, Yorkshire is the "most cost-effective and realistic alternative".^[9]

Episode list

Reception

According to Cheshire Today, the BBC was criticised for glorifying criminals when it announced the series.^[11]

Ratings

Overnight figures showed that A Robber's Tale, the first episode of The Great Train Robbery, was watched by 23.2% of the viewing audience for that time, with 5.23 million watching it.^[12][13] The second episode, A Copper's Tale, had a 23.1% audience share and 4.95 million viewers, according to overnight figures.^[14]

Critical reception

A Robber's Tale received a mixed response. Metro journalist Keith Watson gave the film two stars out of five and said he would have liked to have seen more background on the gang members.^[15] The Daily Telegraph's Tom Rowley gave it four stars out of five and noted the high attention to detail by Chris Chibnall.^[16] Sam Wollaston from The Guardian said A Robber's Tale "beautifully explores the dynamic of a gang of men".^[17]

Awards

The Great Train Robbery received a BAFTA nomination in 2014.^{[18][19][20][21]}

Home media

The two films have been released on DVD by publisher Acorn Media UK and is available from the BBC. It was released at other outlets on 6 January 2014.^[22]

Errors

Early scenes show a robbery in 1962 with two getaway cars sporting A-reg number plates. A-reg number plates were first used in 1963.^[23]

The Greenwich Time Signal heard at the start of the BBC radio news, in which Reynolds hears that their farmhouse has been found, in 1963, has a long final pip. The long final pip was not introduced until 1972.^[24]

In S1:E1 @38:51 during briefing re security, blackboard is erased then after the line "If you like dad, keep mum" when the shot returns to blackboard it is not erased.

References

External links

• The Great Train Robbery on IMDb
• The Great Train Robbery at BBC Programmes
  
• The Great Train Robbery at Radio Times
• Interview with Chris Chibnall about The Great Train Robbery