The Curse | Preview (Channel 4)

Brand-new crime-comedy caper from the award-winning Tom Davis, James De Frond, Steve Stamp, Allan Mustafa and Hugo Chegwin.

Set in London in the early 1980s, The Curse follows a gang of hopeless small-time crooks who, through their own stupidity and poor judgement, find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest gold heists in history.

Times are hard in London's East End. Ordinary people are turning to crime as a way out of poverty - a way to join in with Thatcher's false promise of prosperity for everyone. Albert Fantoni (Mustafa) and his wife Natasha (Emer Kenny), who run a greasy spoon café, are down on their luck and looking for their own way out.

Their lives change when, one evening, Albert and his old mates Phil Pocket (Chegwin), a wannabe gangster, and washed-up ex-boxer Mick Neville (Davis) meet up with Natasha's brother, Sidney (Stamp), at their local pub.

Sidney explains that he has a new job at a warehouse which handles cash shipments in transit. Security is almost non-existent - he could easily let the boys in, and they could help themselves to as much as £50,000. But what they find there is something quite different: boxes and boxes of gold bullion, worth more than £30 million.

They take it and make their escape. What they don't know is that this gold will curse them for the rest of their lives.

All six episodes will be available to stream or download for free on All 4 from 6 February at midnight, before the transmission of this episode.