Timothy Spall will star in a new drama about the Hatton Garden burglary, ITV has announced.
The four-part series will tell the story of the unlikely gang of elderly London robbers who pulled off the bold £25 million jewellery raid in the diamond district of London over the Easter bank holiday weekend in 2015.
The crime will be dramatised by Bafta-winning screenwriter Jeff Pope, who was responsible for the recent ITV series about the murder of Rhys Jones, Little Boy Blue.
Timothy will star opposite Kenneth Cranham and Brian F. O’Byrne in Hatton Garden, while David Hayman, Alex Norton, Ian Puleston-Davies, Geoff Bell and Nasser Memarzia will play the men responsible for the daring raid.
The four episodes will tell how the men pulled off the heist and detail the level of planning and organisation required to penetrate the vault of the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit Company.
Jeff, who will also serve as co-executive producer, said: “This is one of the most high profile crimes of the last decade and we wanted to understand what had happened, and why it had happened.
“The research threw up some fascinating detail and blew away many of the misconceptions about this story.
“It was not about a bunch of ‘loveable old blokes’, many box holders lost everything in the raid and we will reflect this.
“But the planning was clever and the characters involved unique.”
Polly Hill, head of drama at ITV added: “”After the critical acclaim of Little Boy Blue, we are delighted to commission Jeff Pope’s new drama, Hatton Garden.
“Jeff is a master at bringing these true stories to screen and these dramas have always been and continue to be an important part of ITV drama.
“I think the audience will be fascinated by this story and Jeff’s compelling dramatisation of it.”
Filming for the series will begin in London in June.
