Hatton Garden, ITV, Monday at 9pm
RECENT weeks have seen many of my evenings dictated by a household full of sons glued to football.
While those Champions League clashes were exhilarating viewing, I've been longing for a new drama to get my teeth into, especially since the ending of Line of Duty.
So my expectations were high for the start of Hatton Garden this week.
After an almost two-year delay from its original scheduled release, the drama is based on one of the most notorious crimes in recent British history - the Hatton Garden heist.
It follows a gang of mostly elderly men, with a combined age of around 450, who set out to raid an underground safety deposit facility in London's diamond district and steal millions in cash and jewellery.
The four-part series, which was broadcast over consecutive nights this week, details how the career criminals planned the raid and managed to execute it over the bank holiday weekend in April 2015.
The episode begins with 76-year-old ringleader Brian Reader, played by Kenneth Cranham, short of breath as he tries to tie his shoelaces - not quite the picture of fitness needed to carry out a multi-million pound heist.
Then there's fellow 'crim' Terry Perkins, played by Timothy Spall, who also seems to be suffering from ill health.
Slurping a cup of tea in his council estate home, he's seen administering his insulin injection as his daughter says to him, "look at the state of you".
We see the two men posing as potential customers to stake out the underground vault with Brian spending two years plotting the break-in and putting a crew together to carry out what has become one of the most audacious crimes of the past decade.
As the raid begins, the 'mature' criminals, posing as gas workers, are seen heavily-laden with equipment as they embark on what Terry describes as "my last job...we are so close".
But it's not long before the gang are at each other's throats.
"You ain't up to it no more, Terry," shouts Brian, who is hardly a spring chicken himself, as the constant digs at each other recall their unsavoury past.
But, as well-prepared as they thought they were, an unexpected alarm sees the gang forced to abandon the job and make a run for it.
When one of the Hatton Garden key-holders turns up after receiving the alarm call-out, the elderly robbers are seen fleeing up numerous flights of stars, where their age and declining health really is obvious.
There's also the hilarity of the 'so-called' look-out Kenny Collins, played by Alex Norton, who settles himself into a nearby first-floor flat with his lunch box brimming with treats, but almost misses the gang being rumbled after he dozes off.
As the episode nears a conclusion, when the men return to the vault with the alarm call-out over, a vital piece of equipment breaks under the strain of the drilling through several feet of reinforced concrete, and the cracks between the men appear to show.
"The job is blown, we go home," roars Brian.
"Walk away, that's it..... you never go back.... that's where mistakes are made."
As the gang are forced to flee the vault empty-handed, it's not exactly the drive into the sunset that they had hoped for.
Obviously we know from the true-life version of events that they were successful in stealing £14 million. But we also know that those involved aren't exactly living a lavish lifestyle right now - instead they are behind bars.
It's no Robin Hood story with a happy ending, but it's entertaining, gritty and has a comedic charm that almost leaves you wanting the crooks to get away with it.
