ITV bosses know a thing or two about generating suspense, and they’re sure to keep viewers on tenterhooks after announcing that the long-awaited crime drama Hatton Garden won’t be shown now until next year (booo!).
The four-part series – which tells the riveting story of the legendary 2015 safety-deposit heist – was due to kick off last night but has been put on hold to cater for the detective drama Bancroft.
But fans of the true-crime genre needn’t worry, as Hatton Garden is still very much on the cards, with an ITV executive describing the story as “fascinating”.
Head of factual drama Jeff Pope 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.”
In the drama, Timothy Spall heads up the cast as Terry Perkins, one of the men found guilty of the robbery, which has been described as the “largest burglary in English legal history”. Kenneth Cranham and Alex Norton also appear.
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No reason was given for Bancroft getting the nod over Hatton Garden, and viewers who had been looking forward to it are pretty miffed!
Hopefully Sarah Parish’s gripping performance in Bancroft will win them over the course of the week.
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The actress was certainly won over by her character, telling This Morning: “Elizabeth Bancroft is a fantastic character to play.
“She’s a proper old-fashioned control freak who has compartmentalised her life brilliantly. She’s great at her job, ruthless, ambitious and she is bad.”
Bancroft continues on ITV1 until Thursday.