TV TIMES 21T
he Great Train Robbery
was a criminal plot that
continues to capture the
nation’s imagination.
In the early hours of 8 August
19 63, a Royal Mail express train
heading from Glasgow to London
was stopped in Buckinghamshire
and 16 robbers took dozens of sacks
containing £2.6million (around
£5 4 million in today’s money).
The gang members were
eventually caught, charged and
jailed, including Buster Edwards,
Ronnie Biggs and Bruce Reynolds.
However, as revealed in new
C 4 documentary The Great Train
Robbery: The Hidden Tapes, one
man got away with it – and that
man was Danny Pembroke,
a career criminal who’d been
robbing trains for years.
‘I knew he was different, but he
never discussed what he did for aliving,’ says Danny’s son, also called
Danny Pembroke, who speaks
about his dad in the documentary.
‘When he was 28, he dyed his
hair grey. I thought nothing of it.
Then years later I found out that
on one of these robberies one of the
perpetrators was an old man in
a wheelchair. It made sense.’Precautions
After the robbery, the gang counted
up the cash at nearby Leatherslade
Farm. The plan had been to torch
the farm to destroy evidence, but
Danny was extra careful.
‘For the whole time he was in
Leatherslade he kept his gloves on,’
says Danny Jr. ‘He never used the
toilet. He’d take a shovel and walk
out of the farmhouse and dig a hole.’The care he took paid off.
Danny was taken in by the police
for questioning but there was no
evidence to charge him. He later
fled to Florida and returned once
the dust had settled, getting a job
as a cabbie and leading a normal
life until his death in 2015.
‘We had a very comfortable life
but not overextravagant,’ says
Danny Jr. ‘The best car my dad
ever had was a Ford Granada. It
was a nice car but it wasn’t a Rolls-
Royce or a Bentley. He made his
money last a lifetime.’
HANNAH DAVIESMy dad the
Train Robber
Danny Pembroke
on his cab-driver
dad’s dark past
NEW FACTUAL
The Great Train
Robbery: The
Hidden Tapes
MONDAY / C4 / 9PMTHE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY:
THE HIDDEN TAPES IS PREVIEWED
ON PAGES 48-49Inside the Factory
Tuesday / BBC2 / 8pm
Gregg Wallace heads to a croissant
factory that produces 336,000
pastries a day, while Cherry Healey
looks into the best way to eat them!The Queen’s Lost Family
NEW Sunday / C4 / 8pm
Telling the inside story of the
Royal Family over three turbulent
decades, this series begins as
George V sets out to woo the public.ALSO
THIS WEEK!
Ross Kemp: Living with...
LAST ONE Thursday / ITV / 7.30pm
Ross explores the problem of online
gambling addiction, meeting a
mum so in debt that she couldn’t
buy a birthday present for her son.Aftermath: The
robbers got away
with millions in cashSecrets: Danny Jr,
and (left) with his
late father, DannyI knew he
was different,
but he never
discussed what
he did
ADDITIONAL^ WORDS:^ SARAHSELWOOD.^PHOTOS:^ ALAMY,^ BBC,^ C4 ,^DANNY^ PEMBROKE^ GETTY,^ ITV,^TI^PRODUCTIONSKathy Burke’s All Woman
NEW Tuesday / C4 / 10pm
Comedian Kathy Burke is on a
mission to discover what it means
to be a woman today, with the
first episode focusing on beauty.