Mrs Biggs | Home

Mrs Biggs: episode guide

1.01 | 1.02 | 1.03 | 1.04 | 1.05

Episode 5 (90min)

UK: October 03, 2012
Australia: tba
Written by Jeff Pope
Directed by Paul Whittington

Having used the Packer money to buy a new house for herself and the boys, Charmian misses Ron desperately. He is lonely too, barely scraping a living as a roofer in a dingy Rio suburb.

Then, tragedy strikes when their eldest son, Nicky, is killed in a car crash. Charmian has to smuggle out a letter to Ron telling him of the terrible news. Charmian and Ron are broken by the death of Nicky, but each deals with it in a different way.

Charmian resolves to keep herself as busy as she can — maniacally so — by taking on a degree as a mature student. Ron slides into a pit of drink, drugs and women.It is at this point he meets a beautiful young Brazilian dancer by the name of Raimund.

But jaded by life, Ron decides to arrange one last payday then turn himself in. He meets up with a Daily Express journalist in Rio to sell him his life story. The journalist betrays Ron by tipping off the police and an old adversary, Detective Chief Inspector Jack Slipper, arrests Ron in Rio. He is thrown in prison in Brasilia, facing extradition, and without even the comfort of a cheque from the Express for Charmian and the boys.

Then he discovers that Raimunda is pregnant, and that if the baby is his, the Brazilian authorities might not deport him. Charmian flies out to Rio for an emotional reunion, only to be told by Ron that he wants her to divorce him. He tells her it is for cosmetic reasons only — so that he can be 'free' to marry Raimunda, but she is badly shaken.

However, when Ron's extradition is refused, she busily plans for life in Rio as a family unit again, and this time there will be no need to hide. When she takes her sons Chris and Nicky out to meet their father for the first time in nearly five years, Ron is cold and distant; he is curt with Charmian too.

Tension builds until, in an emotional confrontation, he admits to her that his freedom has become more important to him than his family. That he wants to stay free whatever the cost; and that with the Brazilian media watching him for signs of a weakening of commitment to Raimunda, his 'English family' are the price he must pay.

He asks Charmian to live with him and Raimunda in Rio as one, big happy family but she refuses and walks out on him forever. She knows she must put the boys first now. On the way back to Australia she goes to see her family for the first time in over a decade.

Her father is overjoyed when she tells him she and Ron are to divorce, and that he was 'right' about Ron all along. But when her father assumes she will now move back to the UK, she tells him her life is now in Australia, a country that wants her, and where she won't just be 'Mrs Biggs, the wife of the Great Train Robber'.

Cast:

  • Sheridan Smith as Charmian Biggs
  • Daniel Mays as Ronald Biggs
  • Mickey Morris as Nicky Biggs
  • Josh Condon as Twiz (aged 6)
  • Jack Heanly as Twiz (aged 12)
  • Orlando Miller as Sunshine (aged 3)
  • Joshua Shipton as Sunshine (aged 6)
  • Glenn McMillan as Adaulto
  • Kellie Jones as Val Haynes
  • Tom Brooke as Mike Haynes
  • Emma de Clario as Nurse
  • Mandy Lyn Brook as Funeral Singer
  • Alison Bell as Joan Walter
  • Tim Draxl as Craig
  • Libby Tanner as Norma
  • Luisa Hastings-Edge as Lindy
  • Trudy Hellier as Elsie
  • Benedict Hardie as Conti
  • Caroline Goodall as Muriel Powell
  • Francis Greenslade as Tam O'Leary
  • Joana Pires as Raimunda
  • Dena Kaplan as Trish
  • Danielle Maia Luciano as Lucia
  • Tim Ross as Colin MacKenzie
  • Paul Pearson as Express Photographer
  • Phil Cornwell as DS Jack Slipper
  • Steve Hayden as UK Detective
  • Jase Buckley as Simon Cross
  • Antonio Lancuba as Inspector Garcia
  • Peter Prenga as Prison Governor
  • Diego Areco as Brazilian Interviewer
  • Francisco Lopez as Brazilian Reporter
  • Steve Francis Laffan as Texan Virgil
  • Edval Santos as Samba Band (Singer)
  • Nathan Slater as Samba Band (Guitarist)
  • James Gilligan as Samba Band (Bass Player)
  • Mark Grunden as Samba Band (Drummer)
  • Neda Rahmani as Samba Band (Singer & Pandeiro Player)
  • Florence Bell as Gillian Powell
  • Adrian Scarborough as Bernard Powell