7. THE BACKER

FLOELLA BEHIND BENJAMIN every job is the brains, the shadowy figure who plans the caper and puts the team together whilst not actually getting their hands dirty in the commission of the crime. And according to Terry, the A-List Mr Big behind this blag is actually a Mrs Big … none other than Play School favourite FLOELLA BENJAMIN.

“The Backer is always a mysterious figure, outwardly respectable to mask their secret life amongst the scum of the criminal underworld, and Floella Benjamin certainly fits the first part of this M.O. to a tee. She went from being on Play School in the 1970s to taking a seat in the House of Lords in 2010. Nobody knows what she was doing during the intervening 30 years. Whilst it’s possible that she was pursuing a busy career as an actor, TV producer, singer and voiceover artist, it’s just as possible that she spent that time masterminding a notorious series of audacious, armed bank jobs, jewel heists and safety deposit box blags.

And it is this invaluable experience as one of the country’s most successful criminal masterminds that makes her essential to bringing this tickle off without a hitch. Not only that, she also has access to the Play School toys, Hamble, Humpty, Jemima, Big Ted and Little Ted, which she could use on a map of the bank to show every member of the team exactly where they’ve got to go and what they’ve got to do during every split second of the blag.