The BBC Renews 'The Gold' as Paramount+ Drops the Series

Paramount+ had high hopes pinned to The Gold when it launched in September 2023. The streaming service had good reason to believe that, of the 50+ international dramas it had commissioned in the year since July 2022 when it announced it was aiming to appeal to a global market, this one was a winner. It had done gangbusters in the U.K., where it aired on the BBC and streaming on iPlayer. It starred Downton Abbey's Hugh Bonneville, Sanditon's Charlotte Spencer, Guilt's Emun Elliot, and Jack Lowden from Apple TV+'s sleeper hit Slow Horses. And it had a true crime hook: the most significant gold robbery in U.K. history. It had done so well the BBC was already looking to commission Season 2, which has just been announced.

However, Paramount+ did not consider that most Americans don't subscribe to Paramount+ year-round unless they are hardcore Star Trek fans. Nor did it seem to occur to anyone that perhaps marketing it might help (an issue admittedly exacerbated by the strike). But perhaps the most significant issue was one highlighted in our podcast: the series assumed the viewer already knew a lot about the Brinks-Mat heist the series is based on. In the U.K., that's true; it was a cultural moment, primarily because the gold in question was never found. However, for an American viewer who doesn't know much about it, the opening two episodes were downright puzzling when they weren't straight-up offputting.

So perhaps it is not surprising that despite the BBC renewing the series, Deadline reports Paramount is not on board for the second season. However, that opens up the possibility of a new American partner getting ahold of the series and bringing it over, like Netflix or PBS, where the show would get watched.