Emun Elliott Talks About The BBC’s The Gold Series Two

Developing His Investigative Sense

The BBC’s The Gold returns for a second series on 8 June and here’s one of its stars Emun Elliott, who plays DI Tony Cantwell, talking about it…

Can you recap what happened in series one?

In November 1983, six guys in a van nicked £26 million worth of gold from a storage unit in Heathrow Airport. That gold went on to create some of the biggest criminal enterprises in history. In series one, Brian Boyce and his taskforce make every effort to track down that gold and never ever do but what they do is they begin to chase the money. Series one is very much a cat and mouse chase of a police force using new techniques, facing a situation which is completely unprecedented, in an effort to track down a huge amount of gold.

What can you tell us about Brightwell in series 2?

Brightwell is very much developed as a detective – he’s much more confident, much more self-assured, even more relaxed in his procedure and ability. His connection with Brian Boyce and Nicki Jennings is much deeper and stronger.

What was it like filming in Tenerife?

We were filming in Santa Cruz, which is the capital of Tenerife, because in the second series of The Gold, we go international in terms of storytelling. Series one was very much London centric, although there was a tiny little bit where Jennings and Brightwell nip off to Sierra Leone for around a day and there’s a little bit on the south coast of Spain. This time, the story really expands in terms of scale, and we really go international as the money starts to find its way all over the globe.

In Series two, there really is the sense of scale as the money is growing. It’s spreading like a virus all over the planet and because of that, we needed lots of different locations which we’ve managed to find in Tenerife – it becomes the Caribbean, it acts as the south of Spain and as Tenerife itself. Series two just feels like a much bigger, more epic story. Tenerife is a volcanic island, it’s hilly, it’s flat, it’s beachy, so it’s perfect for an international filming location.

How would you describe Brightwell and Jennings’ tactics to get to the gold?

It often feels that Jennings and Brightwell are just a second too late. They always seem to have the right idea and their eyes in the right place, hunting the right person and are on the right track, but every time we get there, we’ve just missed the boat.

At this time, the police did not have the technologies that we have now. We see Jennings, Brightwell and Boyce using new technologies – new systems like wires and listening devices. But even still, these things were very primitive technologically, so they’re sort of fumbling their way through and because of that they often just miss the boat. However, that does nothing to thwart their determination.

What is Brightwell’s motivation?

I think what drives Brightwell is, not only is it his job, as he’s always been very passionate about his job, but also about learning new skills. So, when he’s allowed to explore money laundering and really get into the figures, and look at the way that this money moves, he’s kind of fulfilling this passion. Also there’s a personal connection because they lost one of their colleagues in series one, who was tragically killed. It becomes very personal in terms of payback and he becomes very determined to seek justice.