VIDEO: Watch Downton star Hugh Bonneville talk to Phil Hewitt/SussexWorld about Bank of Dave and The Gold

Based on the true-life experiences of Dave Fishwick, Bank of Dave (directed by Chris Foggin) tells the story of how a working-class Burnley man and self-made millionaire fought to set up a community bank.

It is available to view on Netflix. Hugh plays Sir Charles.

On the BBC, Hugh, who lives near Midhurst, can also be seen in The Gold, the story of three tonnes of solid gold, six armed robbers and an audacious heist that stunned Britain. Hugh stars alongside Dominic Cooper.

Bank of Dave was the chance to take on an enjoyable cameo embodying the very worst side of the financial services industry.

“I'm a huge, huge fan of Rory Kinnear (who plays Dave Fishwick) and of the director Chris Foggin who had a great success with Fisherman's Friends a couple of years ago and we've become pals and we are working on another project together.

"And he said ‘Would you like to come and do this cameo?’ and so I did and I got to be a sort of nasty banker but it is a charming film and it's had a wonderful reaction.

"People have really warmed to it. It's a great wish-fulfilment film and of course it's based on fact.”

The Gold also centres on money – but in a completely different way. In episode one of six, six armed men steal £26m worth of gold from the Brink’s-Mat security depot and set about trying to dispose of the bullion. DCI Brian Boyce – played by Hugh – sets up a police task force to investigate. Inspired by extensive research and interviews with some of those involved in the events, it goes back in time to the 1980s to the “crime of the century.”

“I'm in charge of the task force that investigated the Brink’s-Mat robbery of 1983 and the aftermath of that. You may remember it was the probably the biggest ever bullion robbery.”

The sums were mind-boggling – and what happened to the money is precisely the point.

“It's really about what happened next because the six robbers, it is said, weren't anticipating getting that much gold. They thought there might be a bit but mainly cash which of course they could distribute so suddenly they had to get into the world of smelting and money

laundering and how to get rid of that evidence really. The simple result really is that pretty much every piece of gold that has gone into circulation since 1984, since it started being smelted, is probably out there amongst us. We might be wearing it now. It was never recovered, certainly not as pure gold ingots. Some of the robbers involved were prosecuted. In fact I think all of them were. Some did time and some got away. So it's really a cat and mouse story but it's quite complex because the chain of events was complex. In the end a number of them did time but not all the gold was ever accounted for.”

•Bank of Dave can be watched on Netflix; The Gold is available on BBC iplayer. Created by Neil Forsyth, it also features Jack Lowden and Emun Elliott.