1. The Big One
5/7/202630 min
In 1963, a small-time South London carpenter joins the biggest robbery in British history for one reason — he knows a retired train driver who is semi-competent. And yet Ronnie Biggs will, for the next fifty years, be far more famous than the man who planned it, the rest of the gang who pulled it off, the train driver who was so brutally attacked, or the Scotland Yard detectives who solved the case.
How exactly is a criminal ‘legend’ born? Actor Daniel Mays delves into unheard Ronnie Biggs tapes and takes us back to the rubble of post-war London to find out …
Credits: Presenter - Daniel Mays Producers - Phoebe McIndoe & Jude Shapiro Executive Producer - Jack Howson Associate Exec - Chris Pickard Mix Engineering - Will Fitzpatrick Additional Production Support - Ashley Clivery Commissioning Producer - Sam Proffitt Commissioning Executive - Louise Kattenhorn Commissioning Editor - Richard Maddock
Contributors include: Professor Dick Hobbs, criminologist Nick Reynolds, sculptor and son of the Great Train Robbery gang leader Noel ‘Razor’ Smith, writer and former armed robber Brian Stone, cellmate of Biggs
A Peanut & Crumb production for Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsDaniel Mays· Host0:00
[suspenseful music] A quick warning for you. This episode contains strong language and descriptions of violence. 1993, people across Britain are winding down for the evening, putting on their pajamas, getting kids into bed, and they're listening to this on BBC Radio.
Speaker 10:22
You don't regret the robbery itself, which was described by the judge as being inspired by vast greed. You've no result of stealing other people's money like that.
Ronnie Biggs· Soundbite0:32
No, I'm totally involved in vast greed, I'm afraid.
Speaker 10:35
Does it all not really go together to condone and glamorize what was a very serious crime?
Ronnie Biggs· Soundbite0:41
I'm totally prepared to glamorize and condone a crime that happened 30 years ago.
Daniel Mays· Host0:48
You can practically hear the smirk through the static as this man makes light of his violent crime. So why is he being given the mic?
Speaker 10:58
You haven't served your penitence.
Ronnie Biggs· Soundbite1:00
I've maintained an, an honest life. I've done nothing serious against the law over the last 30 years. As far as I'm concerned, I believe I've wiped the slate clean.
Bruce Reynolds· Soundbite1:08
You rehabilitated yourself.
Ronnie Biggs· Soundbite1:10
Yes. I, I, I believe I'm totally self-rehabilitated.
Daniel Mays· Host1:13
A fugitive who evaded the British justice system for decades, an enigma, a media circus, Ronnie Biggs.
Speaker 4· Soundbite1:22
Ronnie Biggs, in the most serious heist of his era.
Dick Hobbs· Guest1:25
This was a challenge to the whole fabric of law and order, and had to be seen in that context.