Hatton Garden: the Heist

Last updated

Hatton Garden: the Heist
Directed byTerry Lee Coker
Screenplay by Ian Burfield
Michael McKell
Terry Lee Coker
Produced byBradley Coker
Starring Sidney Livingstone
Michael McKell
Music byIan Wherry
Release date
  • 12 October 2016 (2016-10-12)
Running time
86 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
Budget£14 million [1]

Hatton Garden: the Heist is a British action film of 2016, based on the true story of the Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary in Hatton Garden, London, in April 2015, carried out by a group of elderly career criminals.

Contents

The film stars Sidney Livingstone and Michael McKell, and is directed by Terry Lee Coker. [2]

Outline

Brian Reader (played by Sidney Livingstone), a thief in his late seventies, leads a gang of seven old men with a combined age of 448 who carry out an audacious underground raid on a safe deposit centre in Hatton Garden. First convicted of a crime in 1975, Reader had been part of the Brink's-Mat robbery gang of 1983. The others who enter the premises are Daniel Jones (James Osborne), Terry Perkins (Robert Putt), and John Collins (Sidney Kean). Basil (Michael McKell) is the mastermind of the robbery.

Shortly before the robbery begins, Reader tells his men “Let’s show the digital generation what the old school can do.”

The men get into the underground facility at an Easter holiday weekend, drill through the walls of the vault, and take two days to search the safe deposit boxes for cash and valuables. The robbery is only discovered when employees return to work the following day, and the total stolen is reported to be worth some £200 million. However, the men divide up a much smaller haul. The Flying Squad of the Metropolitan Police begins its investigation. Some weeks later, an informer gives the police a lead, and nine men including Reader are arrested and charged.

Production

Reported to have cost £14 million to produce, the film was the first depicting the robbery to be released. When premiered in October 2016, it broke the existence of “Basil”, the planner of the raid, who had not then been traced and charged. [1]

McKell commented at the film's premiere in Soho

“These old guys doing a last big crime is a bit like the Rolling Stones going on one more tour or the fighter who thinks he has one more bout in him. [1]

A DVD was released immediately after the premiere. [3]

Reception

The Movie Scene found that the film “…lacks depth, mystery, detail and pretty much everything which is needed to bring the story to life.” [4]

Cast

See also

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 Tom Pettifor, Mysterious Hatton Garden fugitive known as 'Basil' revealed in £14million film, Daily Mirror , 13 October 2016, accessed 21 May 2022.
  2. Hatton Garden: the Heist, radiotimes.com, accessed 21 May 2022
  3. Hatton Garden: the Heist, hive.co.uk, accessed 21 May 2022.
  4. Hatton Garden the Heist (2016), themoviescene.co.uk, accessed 21 May 2022.

Related Research Articles

<i>The League of Gentlemen</i> (film) 1960 British film by Basil Dearden

The League of Gentlemen is a 1960 British heist action comedy film directed by Basil Dearden and starring Jack Hawkins, Nigel Patrick, Roger Livesey and Richard Attenborough. It is based on John Boland's 1958 novel of the same name, and features a screenplay written by Bryan Forbes, who also co-starred in the film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hatton Garden</span> Street and area in Holborn, London

Hatton Garden is a street and commercial zone in the Holborn district of the London Borough of Camden, abutting the narrow precinct of Saffron Hill which then abuts the City of London. It takes its name from Sir Christopher Hatton, a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, who established a mansion here and gained possession of the garden and orchard of Ely Place, the London seat of the Bishops of Ely. It remained in the Hatton family and was built up as a stylish residential development in the reign of King Charles II. For some decades it often went, outside of the main street, by an alternative name St Alban's Holborn, after the local church built in 1861.

The Brink's-Mat robbery was one of the largest robberies in British history, with £26 million worth of gold bullion, diamonds, and cash stolen. It occurred at the Heathrow International Trading Estate, London, on 26 November 1983, from a warehouse operated by Brink's-Mat, a former joint venture between US security company Brink's and London-based company MAT Transport. The bullion was the property of Johnson Matthey Bankers Ltd. Micky McAvoy and Brian Robinson were convicted of armed robbery. Most of the gold has never been recovered. Lloyd's of London paid out for the losses, and several shooting deaths have been linked to the case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northern Bank robbery</span> Large bank robbery in Belfast, Northern Ireland

On 20 December 2004, a total of £26.5 million in cash was stolen from the headquarters of Northern Bank on Donegall Square West in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Having taken family members of two bank officials hostage, an armed gang forced the workers to help them steal used and unused pound sterling banknotes. The money was loaded into a van and driven away in two trips. This was one of the largest bank robberies in the history of the United Kingdom.

<i>The Great Riviera Bank Robbery</i> 1979 British film by Francis Megahy

The Great Riviera Bank Robbery, also known as Dirty Money and Sewers of Gold, is a 1979 British heist film written and directed by Francis Megahy and starring Ian McShane, Warren Clarke, Stephen Greif and Christopher Malcolm. In the film, based on a bank robbery masterminded by Albert Spaggiari in 1976, members of a neo-fascist group team up with professional criminals to rob the safe deposit vault of a bank in a French resort town.

<i>The Bank Job</i> 2008 film by Roger Donaldson

The Bank Job is a 2008 heist thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson and written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais. It is based on the 1971 burglary of Lloyds Bank safety deposit boxes in Baker Street. It stars Jason Statham.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baker Street robbery</span> 1971 burglary of a bank in London, England

The Baker Street robbery was the burglary of safety deposit boxes at the Baker Street branch of Lloyds Bank in London, on the night of 11 September 1971. A gang tunnelled 40 feet (12 m) from a rented shop two doors away to come up through the floor of the vault. The value of the property stolen is unknown, but is likely to have been between £1.25 million and £3 million; only £231,000 was recovered by the police.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Millennium Dome raid</span> Attempted robbery of diamond exhibition

The Millennium Dome raid was an attempted robbery of the Millennium Dome's diamond exhibition in Greenwich, South East London occurring on 7 November 2000. A local gang planned to ram-raid the De Beers diamond exhibition, which was held in the riverside Dome. The gang had then planned to escape via the Thames in a speedboat.

The United California Bank burglary took place on 24 March 1972, when the safe deposit vault at United California Bank in Laguna Niguel, California, was broken into and US$9 million in cash and valuables were looted by professional burglars led by Amil Dinsio.

<i>Law Men</i> 1944 film by Lambert Hillyer

Law Men is a 1944 American Western film directed by Lambert Hillyer, and released by Monogram Pictures. This is the eighth film in the "Marshal Nevada Jack McKenzie" series, and stars Johnny Mack Brown as Jack McKenzie and Raymond Hatton as his sidekick Sandy Hopkins, with Jan Wiley, Kirby Grant and Robert Frazer.

<i>The Kansan</i> (film) 1943 film

The Kansan is a 1943 Western film directed by George Archainbaud. The film is also known as Wagon Wheels in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antwerp diamond heist</span> 2003 heist in Antwerp, Belgium

The Antwerp diamond heist, dubbed the "heist of the century", was the largest ever diamond heist and one of the largest robberies in history. Thieves stole loose diamonds, gold, silver and other types of jewelry valued at more than $100 million. It took place in Antwerp, Belgium, during the weekend of 15–16 February 2003. Though arrests were made and time was served, most of the diamonds stolen remain unrecovered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brussels Airport diamond heist</span> 2013 diamond heist

On 18 February 2013, eight masked gunmen in two cars with police markings stole approximately €38,000,000 worth of diamonds from a Swiss-bound Fokker 100 operated by Helvetic Airways on the apron at Brussels Airport, Belgium, just before 20:00 CET. The heist was accomplished without a single shot being fired.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary</span> 2015 theft from an underground vault in Holborn, London

In April 2015, an underground safe deposit facility in Hatton Garden, London, owned by Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Ltd., was burgled.

<i>The Hatton Garden Job</i> 2017 British film

The Hatton Garden Job, also known as One Last Heist, is a 2017 British crime film. The film is a dramatization of real-life events in April 2015, when the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company, based underground in the Hatton Garden area of central London, was burgled by four elderly men, all experienced thieves. The film was directed by Ronnie Thompson and stars Larry Lamb, Matthew Goode, and Joely Richardson.

During the four-day Easter weekend of 1977 a burglary took place at the Standard Bank in Krugersdorp, South Africa. The criminals gained access to the bank vault by digging a tunnel underneath the building. Over R 400,000 was stolen in the robbery. To this day, the case remains unsolved and no arrests were made.

<i>King of Thieves</i> (2018 film) 2018 British film by James Marsh

King of Thieves is a 2018 British heist film directed by James Marsh. The film is based on the Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary of 2015, and stars Michael Caine, Tom Courtenay, Michael Gambon, Charlie Cox, Jim Broadbent, Paul Whitehouse and Ray Winstone.

Sidney Frederick Livingstone is an English stage, television, and film character actor. He has sometimes been credited as Sydney Livingstone.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Reader (criminal)</span> 20th-century British gangster (1939–2023)

Brian Henry Reader was a British gangster and villain, who has been described as "one of the busiest crooks in the British underworld", and a "ringleader" of the Hatton Garden safe deposit burglary in 2015.