The Gold

Forsyth has done a skilful job in streamlining a knotty, convoluted and sometimes laborious story and turning it into an exceptional piece of television.

Its straight-ahead, old-fashioned vibe is refreshing. It harks back, in a distant way, to hard-boiled British gangster films like “Get Carter” and “Villain,” offering a whiff of that kind of grit and atmosphere.

For the most part, it is focused and newly thrilling. And despite having no obvious ending to draw from in real life, The Gold manages to cobble one together, with gusto.

The Gold accepts that the theft was the easy part. Telling the story of what happened next – and making it every bit as exhilarating as a full-blown safecracking caper – is the show’s true alchemy.

It would be unfair to fault a consistently entertaining TV drama for falling short of the gritty and gobsmacking truth. The Gold is also partially redeemed by a finale that manages to cleverly wrap up loose narrative ends, while acknowledging that the full story is yet to be told – and likely never can be

The wash of creative licence and composite characters dulls the edge of this second instalment of The Gold, which might have been better off just focusing on the rise and fall of Palmer and Noye, men whose stories have all the drama of a great crime saga, just without any of the convenient structural neatness.

Watching it would feel like mental gymnastics if the cast wasn’t holding on for dear life. The show tries and fails to strike the balance between gritty and entertaining, transforming into an uninteresting version of itself.