Netflix viewers race to watch ‘mesmerising’ drama based on jaw-dropping true story

It looks like Netflix subscribers are discovering a Sheridan Smith crime drama that first aired on ITV in 2012, based on a shocking true crime story.

Mrs Biggs is climbing up the streamer’s ranking of the platform’s top 10 TV shows – making a convincing argument for a late summer binge watch.

Sheridan Smith – who has so many British dramas to her name it can be easy to let one slip – stars in this five-part drama, which is based on the true story of the Great Train Robbery.

The drama focuses on the relationship between Charmian, played by Smith, and her husband Ronnie Biggs, played by Daniel Mays. It follows everything from their first lovestruck meeting and the fateful 1963 train heist, to its aftermath and their eventual divorce in 1976, after Biggs fathered a child in Brazil.

We see the petty crook meet his soon-to-be wife on, of all places, a train. ‘The future is full of possibilities,’ he tells her. ‘The past will only drag you down.’ 

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With that, the Biggs couple set off on a crime spree before they eventually decide to settle down for a quiet married life. That is, until the ‘one last job’ pops up in the chance to join the train robbers.