Dominic Cooper and Hugh Bonneville in first-look images for BBC true crime drama The Gold

Dominic Cooper and Hugh Bonneville travel back in time to the 80s in first-look images from their new drama, The Gold.

Preacher star Cooper and Downton Abbey's Bonneville team up to tell the high-stakes true-crime story of one of the biggest heists in British criminal history for the BBC One series.

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An early look at pictures from The Gold shows them inhabiting the world of 80s London alongside a cast that also includes Jack Lowden, Charlotte Spencer and Ellora Torchia.

The Gold follows the events of 26 November, 1983 when six armed men broke into the Brink’s-Mat security depot near London’s Heathrow Airport and stumbled across gold bullion worth £26m.

Detectives at the time said what had been planned was "a typical Old Kent Road armed robbery", but it became one of the key moments in British criminal history because of the value of gold taken and the knock-on effects on crime.

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In getting rid of the gold, the robbers kicked off the dawn of large-scale international money laundering, provided the dirty money that helped fuel the London Docklands property boom, united blue and white collar criminals and left controversy and murder in their wake.

First-look pictures appear to show Bonneville and Spencer's characters investigating the crime, while Cooper's character enjoys the trappings of 80s wealth and Lowden can be seen examining one of the gold bars seized during the robbery.

Other cast have also just been announced for the series, including Daniel Ings, James Nelson-Joyce, Dorothy Atkinson, Nichola Burley and Chris Coghill.

Previously confirmed cast include Tom Cullen and Emun Elliott.

The drama series, due to air soon on BBC One, is based on research into the crime and interviews with those involved in the investigation.

BBC commissioning editor Tommy Bulfin promised: "The BBC One audience are in for a real treat when this hits the screen."