Hugo Rifkind of
The Times remarked of the series, "it's tremendous. I'm not sure there's been a drama like it in years". In the
Sunday Times, Camilla Long said
The Gold was "astonishingly, lavishly, well realised", while
Esquire said that
The Gold was "British TV at its best" and had "all the hallmarks of a crime classic".
Radio Times said it was "an intricately crafted crime drama". Euan Franklin of Culture Whisper said
The Gold "proves that shows dealing in largely British matters are just as ambitious as prestige American television".
The New Statesman called it "outstandingly enjoyable TV", with the
Evening Standard calling it "a truly smart British crime drama with a classic feel and a knockout cast". Ellen E. Jones of
The Guardian dubbed it an "ever-enjoyable ride". Nick Hilton of
The Independent remarked the show was "a lively, creative piece of work from writer-creator Neil Forsyth, which bubbles away with the vigour of a red-hot crucible". The second series of
The Gold received a similarly positive reception. In a five-star review,
The Times called the second series, "Every bit as sparkling as the first, if not more so. An exceptional piece of television".
The Telegraph said
The Gold "retains its sparkle", and "what sets The Gold apart from similar dramas is the effortless grandeur of Neil Forsyth’s writing".
The Sunday Times said "the shine hasn’t come off The Gold" and
The Herald remarked that Forsyth had "expertly blown the bloody doors off again".
The Metro said the second series was "once again brilliant. Perhaps even better",
The Guardian called it "top quality British drama" with "thunderingly good performances, including Hugh Bonneville at his best", and the
Evening Standard declared The Gold "still a criminally good time".
The Gold has also been well received internationally.
The New York Times praised the "marvellous cast" and said that Forsyth was "working on a bigger canvas, presenting a broad mosaic of the British class system and the dead hand of tradition and hierarchy" while the
LA Times called it "a patient portrait of cops, robbers, class and greed". In New Zealand,
The Post called it "as good as British crime-drama gets" and in Australia the
Sydney Morning Herald hailed
The Gold as "a masterclass: both engrossing and poignant". The Spanish newspaper
El Pais observed "time and time again,
The Gold reveals the inescapable imprint of the human factor in every criminal act" while
El Periódico compared
The Gold to
The Sopranos "in how prosaic its antiheroes can be". In France,
Le Figaro said
The Gold is "a virtuoso and sharp" drama that also served as a "vitriolic portrait of the class system". There was some criticism (including from investigative journalist
Roger Cook who confronted
John Palmer in 1994) of the perceived sympathetic portrayal of Kenneth Noye from the family of the man he murdered and one of the police officers involved in his conviction. ==Accolades==