00:00In the early hours of August 8th, 1963, a Royal Mail train was making its usual journey from Glasgow to London.
00:08It carried not just letters and parcels, but something far more tempting, over 2.6 million pounds in cash, equivalent to more than 50 million pounds today.
00:19Near the village of Brodago Bridge, Buckinghamshire, the train was stopped by a gang of 15 skilled robbers in what became known as the Great Train Robbery,
00:28one of Britain's most famous crimes.
00:31Using a false signal light, the gang tricked the train into stopping.
00:35They then boarded it, overpowered the train driver, Jack Mills, and uncoupled the front two carriages.
00:43They drove the engine a bit further down the track to a waiting truck and began unloading the cash-filled mailbags.
00:49The entire operation took just 30 minutes.
00:53The gang had prepared meticulously.
00:55They had inside information, walkie-talkies, a hideout in a rented farmhouse, and had even trained how to break into the mailbags efficiently.
01:04They planned to lay low for a few months before disappearing with their loot.
01:09But things didn't go exactly as planned.
01:12They left behind too much evidence in the farmhouse, like fingerprints and food packaging.
01:17Within weeks, 11 of the 15 gang members were arrested.
01:21But crucially, not all the money was recovered.
01:24Over 1.5 million pounds was never found.
01:29For robbers were never caught.
01:31One of the most famous escapees was Ronald Biggs, who managed to flee to Brazil and lived there for decades.
01:38Although he became a symbol of the crime, he wasn't one of the masterminds.
01:42Others, like the Ulster Man, believed to be the inside man from the Postal Service, were never identified.
01:50The crime captured the public's imagination.
01:53The robbers didn't use guns, though the train driver was injured.
01:56And they didn't kill anyone.
01:58Many people romanticized the gang as gentlemen thieves, even though they were career criminals.
02:06The British government responded harshly.
02:08Several of the capture robbers received sentences of 30 years, among the longest ever given for a non-violent crime in UK history.
02:17The Great Train robbery remains unsolved in one crucial aspect.
02:22What happened to the missing money?
02:24And who were the unknown men who escaped justice?
02:26Even today, some believe that a portion of the loot is still hidden somewhere in the English countryside, waiting to be found.
