#164 The Great Train Robbery - Oh What A Crime (Part 1)
Oh What A Time...
Pop! Pop!
4.8 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2026
⏱️ 31 minutes
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Summary
This week we’re working through a bit more of your correspondence before dealing with our first ever ‘Oh What A Crime’ episode which today focuses on: The Great Train Robbery of 1963. The planning, Bruce Reynolds, Buster Edwards, Ronnie Biggs et al, the heist itself, the loot and life on the run.
Elsewhere, how did anyone in 1160 survive without caffeine? And is there a worse person to meet than a coked-up Nazi? All this and more this week and if you’ve got anything to add, you know what to do: hello@ohwhatatime.com
And from now on Part 1 is released on Monday and Part 2 on Wednesday - but if you want more Oh What A Time and both parts at once, you should sign up for our Patreon! On there you’ll now find:
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Thank you to Dan Evans for the artwork (idrawforfood.co.uk).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Oh, what a time is now on Patreon. You can get main feed episodes before everyone else, ad free, |
| 0:06.4 | plus access to our full archive of bonus content, two bonus episodes every month, early access |
| 0:11.9 | to live show tickets and access to the Oh Water Time group chat. Plus, if you become an Oh Water |
| 0:16.9 | Time All-Timer, myself, Tom and Ellis will riff on your name to postulate where else in history you might have popped up. |
| 0:23.5 | For all your options, you can go to patreon.com forward slash oh what a time. |
| 0:44.1 | Hello and welcome to Oh What a Time, the history podcast that asks, |
| 0:48.1 | How on earth were we getting through the day before caffeine? |
| 0:54.6 | I've been tired today. I've had too much coffee. My teeth have gone a sort of brown. I'm not going to sleep tonight. That's tomorrow's problem. It was today's solution, and it's tomorrow's problem. |
| 0:59.3 | Tomorrow's problem is in the post. Now, from what I understand, tea, especially sugary tea, |
| 1:06.4 | became very popular during the Industrial Revolution because it would crowd people's hunger, |
| 1:11.8 | and it would perk them up because of the caffeine and allowed people to work harder. |
| 1:15.3 | Okay. |
| 1:15.6 | But, you know, that's still relatively modern. |
| 1:18.1 | A thousand years ago, what were we doing when we were tired? |
| 1:21.8 | Yeah. |
| 1:22.9 | What were we doing? |
| 1:24.1 | What were we taking? |
| 1:25.1 | I know that we were drinking alcohol, you know, in various forms, but obviously that's going to tie you out. What were we doing? What were we taking? I know that we were drinking alcohol, you know, in various forms, but obviously that's going to tie you out. What were we taking to pep us up? Well, you know, you're in the 60s. I'm thinking of the Buddy Holly film that Gary Bues is in. Isn't the implication there were all, everyone in the 60s who worked in music was on anphetamines? Oh yeah, yeah, blueies, yeah, and Purple Hearts, all that stuff. But that's the 60s. |
| 1:46.3 | Like Elvis. |
| 1:46.7 | I'm talking about the 1160s. who worked in music was on anphetamines. Oh yeah, yeah, blueies, yeah, and Purple Hearts. |
| 1:44.3 | That's the 60s. |
| 1:46.4 | Like Elvis. |
... |
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