New movie from Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais

Sitcom legends Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais are writing a  film about the Hatton Garden robbery.

The pair – whose achievements include The Likely Lads,  Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet – are scripting one of three rival movies about the heist.

It will inevitably bear some similarities to the  2008 film The Bank Job, which they also wrote, about the unsolved raid on safe deposit boxes in London’s Baker Street in 1971.

In last year’s Hatton Gardens theft, a gang of older men robbed tens of millions of pounds from deposit boxes in London’s jewellery quarter over the Easter Bank Holiday.

Producer Arthur Sarkissian told film industry website Deadline: ‘Dick and Ian are perfect for this. They could have been two criminals themselves. I love their voice and couldn’t be happier.

‘Only a pair of Englishmen could capture the absurdities of this tale and bring that nuanced, unmatched wit to the screen that the story commands.’

He added that he expected to have a cast and director in place within a month as Clement and La Frenais are about to deliver their finished script.

Published: 2 Aug 2016