Ronnie Biggs picks his moment one last time

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/dec/18/ronnie-biggs-picks-moment-great-train-robbery

Version 0 of 1.

He always knew how to pick his moment, whether it was slipping over the wall of Wandsworth prison to escape in 1965 or dodging the Australian police just as they closed in on him when he was on the run in 1970. So perhaps it should be no surprise that Ronnie Biggs has died just as the BBC was about to broadcast their big-budget two-part account of the Great Train Robbery. Appropriately enough it is The Robber's Tale that is being screened on Wednesday night.

This year was the 50th anniversary of the Great Train Robbery and the deluge of books, documentaries and films is finally coming to an end. There is even a Ronnie Biggs quiz book out just in time for the Christmas rush, in which you can find out everything from which famous footballer he had lunch with in Rio de Janeiro (Bobby Moore) to where he had his plastic surgery done when he was on the run (Paris).

It is a surprise in many ways that Biggs was still alive to witness all the anniversary shenanigans. When he was finally released from prison in 2009, having suffered a series of strokes, he was already unable to walk and had difficulty communicating. His release had been delayed by the then justice secretary, Jack Straw, on the grounds that he might still, somewhat improbably, involve himself in another criminal conspiracy.

It was said at the time that did not have long to live but there he was this August, in his wheelchair, in Highgate cemetery for the burial of the ashes of his old friend, Bruce Reynolds, who conceived the robbery. Reynolds had checked out earlier this year, probably relieved that he didn't have to submit himself to all the old questions about a crime that has had such a remarkable grip on the national psyche.

Biggs had earlier attended Reynolds's church funeral and managed to make the front pages again, giving a cheery two-fingers to the assembled media. He was always suspicious of the press, a wariness that stemmed from being stitched up by the Daily Express when he was in Brazil in 1974.

He had agreed to do an interview with the paper then but was unaware that they had tipped off Scotland Yard. This led to the famous arrest by the detective Jack Slipper, in Rio but the fates were on Biggs's side and he did not return to Britain until 2001, this time under the auspices of the Sun. By now he was already unwell and had even tried to take his own life.

The four years he spend out of prison before his death were lively ones. He went to watch Brazil play Scotland at the Emirates stadium and saw the relaunch in 2011 of his updated autobiography, Odd Man Out: The Last Straw, at Shoreditch House, in east London. He even made the front pages again when someone vandalised his mobility scooter – cue lots of jokes about getaway drivers.

In Highgate cemetery this August, he could only communicate through his Brazilian-born son, Michael, by using a signing board but he was as proud as ever at having been involved in the robbery. He was often asked if he had regrets about it all and he did. As he said in his autobiography: "I have always regretted the hurt I caused by my actions." And he specifically said that he regretted that Jack Mills, the train driver who was coshed during the robbery, was injured.

But he did not, in the end, regret playing a part in what happened that night and becoming, for better or worse, part of history.

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.