The Gold season 2 cast: who's who including the new characters

The Gold season 2 sees the hunt continue for the £26 million worth of gold stolen in the Brink's Mat robbery.

The new six-part drama, inspired by the real-life armed theft that took place at a warehouse near London's Heathrow Airport in 1983, follows on from the huge success of the original series, one of the best BBC dramas of recent times.

Setting up season 2, star Hugh Bonneville, who plays lead detective Brian Boyce, says: "In Series 1 we learnt about the smelting process, bringing the proceeds to market, laundering the profits, and the effect of that money on people and on the economy.

"Now, we see the ripple effect of even more gold being smelted and even more money being laundered."

Here's who's returning for season 2 and the new characters joining the hit BBC drama...

Brian Boyce (Hugh Bonneville) — Returning

Boyce, the real-life Met detective who headed up the investigation into the Brink’s Mat robbery, won't stop until he recovers every last ounce of gold.

Hugh says: "As the money is spreading so far and wide, it proves increasingly difficult for Boyce and his team to keep up, especially as their operation is facing pressure to scale back in the face of limited results. As far as his superiors are concerned, Boyce hasn't put enough of the bad guys behind bars. Boyce's reliance on his protégés, Jennings and Brightwell, becomes key."

DI Nicki Jennings (Charlotte Spencer) — Returning

The bright young detective is a crucial member of Brian Boyce’s investigating team. Charlotte says: "Jennings in this series has got into her groove a bit more, she's more comfortable with herself now and understands the job and what she is doing. Her look is more 90s and a bit more relaxed, but she still has some amazing outfits.

"I have this amazing green coat, which I just adore. Obviously, that was for the London scenes, not for Tenerife! There’s one outfit she wears in Tenerife, and we were joking that it looked like I could have been in Jurassic Park, it was great. "

DI Tony Brightwell (Emun Elliott) — Returning

Tony is also a key member of Boyce's team, who is doggedly determined to bring everyone involved in the heist to justice. Emun says: "Brightwell is very much developed as a detective — he's much more confident, much more self-assured, even more relaxed in his procedure and ability. His connection with Brian Boyce and Nicki Jennings is much deeper and stronger."

DI Tony Lundy (Stephen Campbell Moore) — New

The talented cop has been in trouble for his maverick ways, and Brian Boyce's team is wary when he joins the investigation. Stephen says: "Tony Lundy is a real person and he has, what seems to be to the audience, a slightly checkered past. When we first meet him, he looks to be at the end of his career. He has survived an enquiry into corruption, but he’s been told by the bosses there is nowhere else for you to go, you need to retire.

"He doesn’t want to retire, and he gets brought by Boyce to be a part of the Brink’s-Mat investigation which at this point is at an extremely low level and it seems to have ground to a complete halt."

Douglas Baxter (Joshua McGuire) — New

The cocky lawyer and financial adviser is called on by robber Charlie Miller to help launder the proceeds from the gold. Joshua says: "Baxter is a graduate of Cambridge and he is down on his luck. He's a lawyer but offers his financial services to essentially launder money on the Isle of Man because they're a bit more lax there. He is the other side of a criminal conviction for drug possession.

"He’s nowhere near where he wants to be in life and he has very high opinions of himself, in some ways, quite rightly - he’s very intelligent, grammar school educated, he calls himself the ‘finest legal mind of his generation’, whether or not that’s 100% true?"

Logan Campbell (Tom Hughes) — New

In the British Virgin Islands, the businessman is reunited with his former university pal Douglas, who brings him a proposition. Tom says: "On the surface Logan appears to be someone who has everything. All in balance. Success and contentment. But it's a veneer. A creation. Underneath is a well of complexity and self-loathing and pain. He's running away from himself in many ways and that makes him dangerous, and cold to the touch."

Kadene (Rochelle Neil) — New

Logan’s girlfriend, who works for the governor of Tortola and helps local communities, wants her man to be more philanthropic.

John Palmer (Tom Cullen) — Returning

Tom Cullen says: "In series one we leave John Palmer as really the only guy that got away with it. He was found not guilty in the Old Bailey for his part of the smelting of the gold, through saying that he didn’t know that it was Brink’s-Mat, which of course is highly suspect.

"There's quite a large leap in terms of John Palmer from series one to series two. We pick him up at his kind of zenith. He ran a very large timeshare business which we see the genesis of in series one but now it’s at its absolute peak and it was an incredibly successful business for a long time."

Charlie Miller (Sam Spruell) — returning

Describing Charlie, Sam says: "Charlie Miller is an amalgam of various alleged southeast London criminals involved in the Brink’s-Mat robbery, he is no one specific. You see Charlie really at the end of the first series as he’s one of the Brink’s-Mat robbers. He ends up at the beginning of the second series in possession of half the gold. Throughout the first series the police thought they were dealing with all the gold but actually there is another half that Charlie Miller kept for himself."

Kenneth Noye (Jack Lowden) — returning

The London criminal was recruited by the Brink's-Mat robbery gang to help with the disposal of the gold bullion.