Gangster - 1. The Big One
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
Published on Thursday, 7th May 2026.
Available Podcasts from Gangster
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