1 week Ago By Chloe Govan
Netflix hit Hatton Garden - a true life story about Britain's biggest burglary and the complex investigation that ensued - has racked up an impressive rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. The story of the £14million diamond heist in London's renowned jewellery quarter is a gem you shouldn't think twice about streaming. The real event took place in 2015, when staff guarding a huge fortune in the form of sparkly jewellery, locked the doors and left for their Easter breaks.
In the underground vaults beneath the building at 88-90 Hatton Garden lay carefully shrouded safety deposit boxes with a stash of precious gemstones and even substantial cash. Against all odds, a group of elderly men swooped and gained entry, defeating complex alarm systems and making their way through thick layers of concrete. In what would turn out to be the largest scale single burglary the UK had ever seen, the unlikely group of elderly criminals took items to the value of millions of pounds.
The theft was pre-planned, and the men were equipped with walkie talkies instead of traceable mobile phones, while they'd even dressed as gas safety workers in fluorescent jackets so that lurking around the building wouldn't attract suspicion. The thieves bamboozled police initially as there was no obvious sign of forced entry - but instead, they'd disabled the lift when it got to the second floor and used the vacant shaft to get themselves down to the basement. Once there, they wasted no time in wrestling open the shutter doors to get the spoils, thanks to the equipment they'd brought along.
The alarms had all been disabled using a jammer, thanks to one of the men's specialist knowledge in how the systems worked, while the phone lines were cut and the GPS aerial broken. They then drilled holes into a two metre thick concrete wall, before finally triggering an alarm in the early hours of the morning. Incredibly, a security guard who was dispatched to check on the situation decided that, because the building looked secure, there was no need to investigate further - and that failing meant the thieves could carry out the £14million heist unapprehended.
Unsurprisingly, it wasn't long before Netflix decided to acquire a drama based on the real-life burglary, which has striven for an accurate representation of events down to the very last detail. Retired senior police officer Peter Spindler assisted with the production, while some police transcripts have been included in the script "word for word". The show's writer and executive producer Jeff Pope confirmed that no part of the drama had "come out of thin air", making for a gripping true to life drama, while compelling actors include Timothy Spall and Kenneth Cranham.
It's available to stream all month on Netflix before being dropped from the broadcaster on May 1 - so if you want to see this historical event come to life, you know what to do..
