UK TV Drama on Rialto in October

Not all of the best BBC drama will be seen first on BBC First. 

Indeed, to watch one of this year’s BAFTA nominees for best drama series, you’ll need to subscribe to Sky’s premium channel, Rialto.

Premiering on October 22 is The Gold, a true-life BBC dramatisation of how six armed men stumbled across gold bullion worth £26 million when they broke into the Brink’s-Mat security depot in 1983. Reads the blurb:

The disposal of the bullion caused the birth of large-scale international money laundering, provided the dirty money that helped fuel the London Docklands property boom and left controversy and murder in its wake. What started as a typical armed robbery became a seminal event in British criminal history.

Hugh Bonneville (Downton Abbey), Jack Lowden (Slow Horses) and Dominic Cooper (Preacher) star in a “a classy British crime drama with a big and brilliant cast” that was hugely acclaimed and led to the BBC commissioning a second season, which will premiere here in April.

Another BBC drama series new to Rialto this month is Marie Antoinette (October 2).

According to the blurb, the Canal+ co-production explores “the dark, manipulative and misogynistic world of Versailles … through a 21st century lens”.

Vogue called it a “lavish … feminist take on Marie Antoinette’s life” and The Guardian “hugely entertaining … if you loved The Favourite, you’ll adore this fun period drama.”

But The daily Telegraph quipped it felt “more like a Versailles-themed edition of Love Island with retrofitted dialogue”.

Emilia Schüle, Louis Cunningham (Bridgerton) and Jack Archer (Call The Midwife, The Bay) star; here’s the trailer.