Episode 011 - The Great Train Robbery

The Great Train Robbery was the robbery of £2.6 million from a Royal Mail train heading from Glasgow to London on the West Coast Main Line in the early hours of 8 August 1963, at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn, near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England.

A robbery that took less than 30 minutes from start to finish, spread over a distance of 28 miles, and would net the gang involved the equivalent of over £38 million in today’s money.

The gang consisted of 15 members, four of which , still to this day, were never caught-their names not even known.

The robbery was immediately dubbed the crime of the century, and is still spoken about today  for not only the planning and the preciseness of the raid, but also the mistakes and the bungling of the gang that led to their arrest…for some of them that is. For in addition to this there is the story of those that evaded capture for nearly fifty years becoming celebrities halfway around the globe.

There is also the story of the police that were involved. The Flying Squad determined to capture those responsible at any cost. And the story of the families of the police officers, the gang and the victims.

The audacity and the scale of the robbery fascinated the country, sticking two fingers up to the establishment as details unfolded in the daily newspapers and tv reports. And even today there remains this almost romantic notion of the cheeky gang of South London crooks that wouldn’t hurt anyone being punished by harsh prison sentences- but as we will discover, people did get hurt. And as well as capturing the public’s imagination, it horrified them in equal measure.

Ladies and gentlemen, Rainbow Valley is proud to present the story of The Great Train Robbery.

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