The Great Bookie Robbery in August
23 July 2007

England had its Great Train Robbery, but in Australia it was the Great Bookie Robbery that grabbed the headlines, a robbery whose daring and international fame even attracted unsolicited acclaim from Ronnie Biggs himself. The story began in England's Parkhurst Prison, where the the splendidly named Mike Power devised a plan for a robbery to take place on the other side of the world in Australia. The subsequent operation netted the gang somewhere between $6 million and $12 million for a robbery that took just 11 minutes, and the true story of what happened only came out by chance at a later date after one of the gang, Norman Lee, who had been convicted and then acquitted, was killed by police while taking part in a heist at Melbourne Airport.

The story was turned into a mini-series for Australia television in 1986 and had Norman Lee on board as a consultant, even using Lee's actual house as the location for the gang's residence. The series was well received and is regarded as one a genuinely top rate heist movie, but has been almost impossible to track down in recent years. Fortunately Eureka Entertainment are to put that right 20th August 2007 when they make the series available on UK DVD. The disc release will feature a commentary by directors Mark Joffe and Marcus Cole and actor Andy Anderson and will retail at a most reasonable £15.99.