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Untold story of Baker Street bank robbery
Film uses informer's revelations on unsolved 1971 crime
Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
The Observer, Sunday March 11, 2007
Thirty-six years ago, one of the most remarkable and daring bank raids shocked Britain. The 'walkie-talkie bank job' saw £500,000 - worth £5m today - stolen from Lloyds in London's Baker Street and the crime was never solved.
Now the film industry is to attempt to explain why the robbery and its investigation have remained secret. The story, which will incriminate high-ranking police officers, the secret service, politicians and a prominent member of the royal family, is to be at the centre of The Bank Job, starring Saffron Burrows and Jason Statham as bank raiders. It was written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and results from co-operation with a 'deep throat' informer who was involved in the original investigation.
Reports of the raid were on the front pages of newspapers for a handful of days in September, 1971. Then, oddly, a government gagging order, or D Notice, was imposed to prevent further coverage. The raid had already attracted national attention because of apparent negligence by police who failed to act quickly following a fluke tip-off from a member of the public who overheard the robbers talking on two-way radio.
'This is an amazing, untold story of murder, sex and corruption. It's going to excite and entertain audiences everywhere, but it will also give them plenty to think about,' said the producer of the film, Charles Raven.
A radio ham, Robert Rowlands, heard the robbers as he randomly twisted the dial of his set before going to bed one night at his flat in Wimpole Street, central London. Two voices argued about whether some cutting work should stop or go on all night. The men were covertly working on a tunnel which, it turned out, led to the bank basement.
Excited and alarmed, Rowlands called the local police station in Marylebone and told an officer the police should search all the local banks. The officer simply told him to tape the conversation. The resulting tape, which was transcribed and broadcast on national radio at the time, gives a rare insight into the minds of a gang in the middle of a major crime. It also furnished Clement and La Frenais with authentic dialogue for a screenplay.
The writers, co-creators of The Likely Lads and Porridge, as well as authors of the recent animated Hollywood hit, Flushed Away, have been trying to bring their discoveries about the bank raid to the screen for at least seven years.
Their film, directed by Roger Donaldson and filmed in London and Australia over the past five months, will claim it was the contents of safety deposit boxes in the vault that caused the government to clamp down on reporting. Photographs and other evidence of illicit sexual encounters implicating influential public figures were held at the bank. As well as providing a dramatic plot, Clement and La Frenais were attracted by the picture the case outlines of class divisions and corruption in the Seventies. But it was the conversation recorded by Rowlands that sparked their interest.
'The gang had walkie-talkies and look-outs on the roof,' Clement explained this weekend. 'I read about the robbery at the time and the great remark that Ian and I remember was one of the lookouts saying: "I'm off home now, I'm cold and hungry." A gang member said: "You can't go now, we're almost there." And the reply was: "Money may be your god, but it's not mine and I'm fucking off".'
When the robbery was discovered, Clement now believes MI5 moved in and issued the D Notice. The newspapers went quiet, but not before the Daily Mail had accused the police of ineptitude.
The public believed a police investigation was going on. In fact, the film will argue, the case had been handed over to the intelligence services because of the sensitive issues involved.
Mysteries remain, however: the people involved in infidelities are still unnamed and the writers have not yet revealed the identity of their 'deep throat'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/mar/11/film.ukcrime
Film uses informer's revelations on unsolved 1971 crime
Vanessa Thorpe, arts and media correspondent
The Observer, Sunday March 11, 2007
Thirty-six years ago, one of the most remarkable and daring bank raids shocked Britain. The 'walkie-talkie bank job' saw £500,000 - worth £5m today - stolen from Lloyds in London's Baker Street and the crime was never solved.
Now the film industry is to attempt to explain why the robbery and its investigation have remained secret. The story, which will incriminate high-ranking police officers, the secret service, politicians and a prominent member of the royal family, is to be at the centre of The Bank Job, starring Saffron Burrows and Jason Statham as bank raiders. It was written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais and results from co-operation with a 'deep throat' informer who was involved in the original investigation.
Reports of the raid were on the front pages of newspapers for a handful of days in September, 1971. Then, oddly, a government gagging order, or D Notice, was imposed to prevent further coverage. The raid had already attracted national attention because of apparent negligence by police who failed to act quickly following a fluke tip-off from a member of the public who overheard the robbers talking on two-way radio.
'This is an amazing, untold story of murder, sex and corruption. It's going to excite and entertain audiences everywhere, but it will also give them plenty to think about,' said the producer of the film, Charles Raven.
A radio ham, Robert Rowlands, heard the robbers as he randomly twisted the dial of his set before going to bed one night at his flat in Wimpole Street, central London. Two voices argued about whether some cutting work should stop or go on all night. The men were covertly working on a tunnel which, it turned out, led to the bank basement.
Excited and alarmed, Rowlands called the local police station in Marylebone and told an officer the police should search all the local banks. The officer simply told him to tape the conversation. The resulting tape, which was transcribed and broadcast on national radio at the time, gives a rare insight into the minds of a gang in the middle of a major crime. It also furnished Clement and La Frenais with authentic dialogue for a screenplay.
The writers, co-creators of The Likely Lads and Porridge, as well as authors of the recent animated Hollywood hit, Flushed Away, have been trying to bring their discoveries about the bank raid to the screen for at least seven years.
Their film, directed by Roger Donaldson and filmed in London and Australia over the past five months, will claim it was the contents of safety deposit boxes in the vault that caused the government to clamp down on reporting. Photographs and other evidence of illicit sexual encounters implicating influential public figures were held at the bank. As well as providing a dramatic plot, Clement and La Frenais were attracted by the picture the case outlines of class divisions and corruption in the Seventies. But it was the conversation recorded by Rowlands that sparked their interest.
'The gang had walkie-talkies and look-outs on the roof,' Clement explained this weekend. 'I read about the robbery at the time and the great remark that Ian and I remember was one of the lookouts saying: "I'm off home now, I'm cold and hungry." A gang member said: "You can't go now, we're almost there." And the reply was: "Money may be your god, but it's not mine and I'm fucking off".'
When the robbery was discovered, Clement now believes MI5 moved in and issued the D Notice. The newspapers went quiet, but not before the Daily Mail had accused the police of ineptitude.
The public believed a police investigation was going on. In fact, the film will argue, the case had been handed over to the intelligence services because of the sensitive issues involved.
Mysteries remain, however: the people involved in infidelities are still unnamed and the writers have not yet revealed the identity of their 'deep throat'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/mar/11/film.ukcrime
