got less than a minute.
Bloody hell, you look a sight.
I look a sight?
No, but you're all covered in soot.
It's the smoke.
- I haven't brought a change of clothing.
- That's brilliant!
What are you going to wear
coming off Folkestone station?
Oh, no!
Bloody hell! You paint me green,
make me lie in a coffin with a dead cat,
and now you strip me bollock-naked. No!
- Shut up.
- Bloody hell!
Let's go.
He'll take the river road
and meet us in Folkestone.
Take hold of the rope.
We'll be through Ashford soon. Pull it.
We'll pass Ashford soon.
Best lock me up.
- Sweet dreams.
- Not bloody likely.
Me mum told me the best gents were the
ones to watch. Full of tricks, they are.
I knew of one caller, wanted me to come
to a room he had, full of whips and such.
Whips?
Can you imagine!
- Well, me mum, she told me...
- My dear, my dear, my dearest!
What a man you are!
What do you take me for?
Impossible woman.
Robbery indeed. The very idea!
Arrest that man!
The court thanks you for providing us
with so clear an explanation
of your manner in committing the crime.
I'm glad to be of help.
The police seemed to be confused.
Do spare us your impoverished
witticisms, Mr Pierce.
Your presence here
attests to their efficiency.
You know, you are a very unusual man.
Mr Pierce, I put it to you directly.
Did you never feel at any time
some sense of impropriety,
some recognition of misconduct,
some comprehension of unlawful
behaviour, some moral misgivings
in the performance of these
various and sundry criminal acts?
- I don't understand the question.
- Evidently not.
Sir, it is a recognised truth
of jurisprudence
that laws are created by men
and that civilised men,
in a tradition of more than two millennia,
agree to abide by these laws
for the common good of all society.
For it is only by the rule of law
that any civilisation holds itself above
the promiscuous squalor of barbarism.
Now, on the matter of motive, we ask you:
Why did you conceive, plan and execute
this dastardly and scandalous crime?
I wanted the money.
He'll get 20 years for that.
What the hell are you waiting for?In 1855, England and France
were at war with Russia in the Crimea.
The English troops were paid in gold.
Once a month Ј25,000 in gold
was loaded into strongboxes
inside the London bank
of Huddleston and Bradford
and taken by trusted armed guards
to the railway station.
The convoy followed
no fixed route or timetable.
The gold was loaded into the
luggage van of the Folkestone train
for shipment to the coast
and from there to the Crimea.
The strongboxes
were placed in two Chubb safes
constructed of
three-quarter-inch tempered steel.
Each safe weighed 550 pounds.
Each safe was fitted with two locks
requiring two keys,
or four keys altogether.
For security,
each key was individually protected.
Two keys were entrusted to the railway
dispatcher, who kept them in his office.
A third was in the custody of
Mr Edgar Trent,
president of the Huddleston and Bradford.
And the fourth key
was given to Mr Henry Fowler,
manager of the Huddleston
and Bradford Bank.
The presence of so much gold
in one place
aroused the interests
of the English criminal elements,
but in 1855 there had never been
a robbery from a moving railway train.
Is he dead?
Robbery? I'd hardly call it that -
one poor fellow working alone.
He had no chance of success.
Indeed, speaking on behalf of the bank,
I must inform you the matter was trivial
and hardly worthy of our consideration.
I think I may say that
without fear of contradiction.
The villain expired?
Quite. The guard threw him
from the train at full speed.
He died instantly.