The Gold ★★★★½
Paramount+

The fulcrum of this gripping, genre-bending crime drama inspired by historic events is three tonnes of gold bullion, stolen by armed robbers from the secure Brink’s-Mat warehouse near London’s Heathrow Airport on November 26, 1983. It is an immense take, worth approximately $200 million today, and it unleashes immense change. But it’s not merely greed that surfaces, this six-part series is defined by institutional corruption, defiant social ambition, and heartbreaking failure. It’s a thrilling yet melancholic narrative – no one who comes near the gleaming loot gets away clean.

The show’s creator, Neil Forsyth (Guilt), has forged a revisionist coppers and crooks thriller. Imagine The Sweeney remade by Ken Loach – the dialogue is tart and expressive, the scenes laced in cigarette smoke, but the modern themes seep into the action. The proceeds of the robbery are like tracing dye, finding its way into urban renewal and foreign bank accounts as it reveals an alternate power structure of South London crims and shadowy freemasons.

The Gold is a truth serum for Britain’s unwritten rules. “That lot have it and us lot nick it,” declares successful fence Kenneth Noye (Jack Lowden), who takes on the job of liquidating the gold. Class friction is ever-present in British popular culture, but here it’s bittersweet and revelatory. Noye’s associate, gold merchant John Palmer (Tom Cullen), becomes obsessed by the wealthy future he imagines, while the posh lawyer the conspiracy engages, Edwyn Cooper (Dominic Cooper), is irrevocably drawn back into the past he escaped.

All of this unfolds with a humming momentum, as the police race to make arrests and find the gold and then the cash. There’s not a great deal of violence – a crucial clash happens off-screen – and there’s a thread of black humour woven in, whether it’s an unconventional legal defence or a bumbling but effective financial expert, Archie Osborne (Daniel Ings). Forsyth has a masterful knack for storytelling, but also marshals implacable truths (borrowing a scene from The Godfather is a respectful homage).

The show’s brilliance isn’t showy, it’s quietly sustained. The dedicated leader of the investigators, Brian Boyce (Hugh Bonneville), goes from familiar outline to haunted veteran, while a young female detective making good for a crooked father, Nicki Jennings (Charlotte Spencer), reveals a defiant drive. There are half a dozen key roles here, each serving as interlocked gears, but The Gold also astutely sketches those around them, such as the perpetrator’s working-class wives. This vast, unexpected tale is a masterclass: both engrossing and poignant.

The Other Black Girl ★★★½
Disney+

Whip-smart and keen to quicken the paranormal pulse, this horror-mystery hits the ground running (for the elevator): Nella Rogers (Sinclair Daniel) is the one Black editorial staffer at New York publishing house Wagner Books. She feels token, is routinely misunderstood, and works twice as hard, so she’s delighted when the company hires another Black woman, Hazel-May McCall (Ashleigh Murray). Nella feels recognised.

But camaraderie soon becomes creepy, as Hazel alternates between friend and foe while strange events start to occur; working late really does test the sanity. Creators Rashida Jones and Zakiya Dalila Harris, who adapted the latter’s 2021 best-selling novel, cleverly weave together many fears. As a lone minority in the workplace, Nella is so used to putting aside her co-workers’ failings that she can’t accept that something dangerous is taking shape.