“In an escape like this, whose side are you instinctively on – the escaped man, or the police?”
Charlie Wilson – a member of the Great Train Robbery gang – escaped from HMP Winson Green on the 12th August, after spending just four months in prison. He remains at large.
How do the British public feel about Wilson? If they spotted him on the street, would they inform the police – or would they help him? Magnus Magnusson interviews members of the public to find out.
This clip is from Tonight, originally broadcast 21 August, 1964.
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This guy thinks he's James Bond
I would help him!
Compare the accents then to what they are now, as the lads s all become Kanye West doppelgangers and the lasses all want to be Lizzo (well they're all fat enough!)
4:39 It's as if an alien has beamed down to earth and is passing himself off as a human. I see you there, alien.
How well spoken and polite people were then!
(1:40).. But it's not his money, madam.
In a world where nobody considers the corrupt politicians or bankers immoral anymore. Yes, I'd help him.
Put it this way, nobody bands together these days. Nobody says "You know what? This government has screwed us over long enough, lets all get together and force them out, rather than wait another 2 years for a lose/lose election."
Brits have no spine, and we're all divided in every way anyway. So again, yes, I'd help him. I can't afford to ever retire on the money I earn, and when my dad dies, I'll be on the street. So I've got nothing to lose.
Police. Yeah I know the sentence was inhumane but crime doesn't pay.
That posh guy at that start was the most non-committal, morally ambivalent person I have ever seen or heard.. hilarious !
The interviewer isn't interviewing, he's educating the interviewees in "appropriate behaviour" – just like the BBC have always done. A detestable organisation that I hope I live to see broken up into little pieces and every man jack of them fired.
I'm quite surprised by their sympathies towards him. They see his escape as something romantic and to be admired. I wonder what todays attitudes would be.
Talking of Great Train Robbers, I used to see Buster Edwards selling flowers outside Waterloo Station in the late 70s. He seemed like a nice man!
One gets the impression that a few of the interviewees championing Wilson are under the delusion he’s some sort of Robin Hood type folk hero!
In the interests of context the train driver during the robbery, Jack Mills, suffered severe head injuries from the gang and, beset by recurring trauma, never fully recovered. No, I certainly wouldn’t have helped Wilson.
Didn't get the expected, wouldn't be broadcast today 😂 Up the 60's 👍
I must just say that I particularly enjoyed the moment when that interviewer fellow was interrupted by that posh fellow and he said to him:
"I've started so I'll finish!"
So terribly, terribly refreshing, don't you think?
It was strange the way they were romanticised. I wonder what caused that. The drivers life was irreparably altered by their attack on him. If their crime was purely money then never mind, it’s all insured, but someone got badly hurt.
I remember seeing Buster Edwards selling flowers under Waterloo Station in the early/mid 80s, my Aunt made a point of telling me. I said hello a couple of times. 😅
No bigger robbers than bankers, politicians and police.
The guy at the beginning was absolutely brilliant, if I may talk loosely!
And if he offered you tickets to the next Genesis tour would you accept them? 💐
In Germany it's not criminal offense to escape from prison
How we miss the cut glass English accent ! ☹️
This is the longest continuous parade of morons i’ve seen in a long time
A crime did not left to be a crime only for sympathise with the criminal. Moreover, I have been amazed how the people stay on the fence and they look undecised, it is so hard to have solid values, isn't it?
I watch this as an Englishman and I don't recognise these people anymore, my country has become a slum full of foreigners and crime, what the hell happened
Back in the early 80's , a friend of mine would live in Brazil in the winters to teach English and party with Ronnie Biggs.
I'd let him smash me over the head and destroy my life any day of the week! Good on ya, son!