Stefanie Martini on The Gold S1: MASTERPIECE Studio

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Stefanie Martini, The Gold Season 1 | MASTERPIECE Studio

Released October 20, 2025 23:54

WARNING: This episode contains spoilers for Episode 3 of The Gold S1.For actor Stefanie Martini, getting into character to play Marnie Palmer involved doing away with her drama school style of speaking, and pulling out her native Bristolian accent. Today, Stefanie talks about portraying the real life Marnie Palmer, and what it was like to be stuck in a 1980s time warp while shooting The Gold.

Stefanie Martini, The Gold Season 1 | MASTERPIECE Studio

This script has been lightly edited for clarity.

Jace Lacob: I’m Jace Lacob and you’re listening to MASTERPIECE Studio.

Marnie Palmer seems to have it all. She lives in an impressive house, rides horses, has two beautiful children, and is happily married to a loving husband who brings home a seemingly endless supply of gold coins, trinkets, and of course jewelry.

CLIP

John: Alright?

Marnie: Alright. What’re you doing home, then?

John: Picked up a few bits.

Marnie: Oh yeah? Trying to sneak them past me, we’re you?

John: Well there’s not much chance of that, is there?

For all she knows, Scadlynn, her husband John’s gold and jewelry business is doing well, so well that she sees no reason not to purchase the sleek convertible they’ve both been coveting for months. But the truth is far more complicated than her husband has led her to believe, as he’s made no mention of his involvement in the Brink’s-Mat robbery, nor the stolen gold that he’s been secretly smelting.

CLIP

Marnie: Oh it’s beautiful, John.

John: Give me the keys.

Marnie: Did you see the seats?

John: Give me the keys, we’re taking it back.

Marnie: What’re you on about? We’ve been waiting months for it.

John: We don’t have the money.

Marnie: You’ve been out at that smelter every night. How could we not have the money?

John: It’s not as simple as that, alright? Now, give it some time, we can have any car that we want. But not yet.

Unlike John, who is a major link in the gold chain after the Brink’s-Mat robbery, Marnie doesn’t need more wealth. She hails from modest beginnings and her life is already far beyond anything she could’ve conceived. Today, we’re joined by actor Stefanie Martini who plays the sanguine Marnie Palmer in The Gold. Stefanie shares how she approached playing this real-life character, and what it was like to be stuck in a 1980s time warp while shooting this gripping series.

Jace Lacob: And this week we are joined by The Gold star, Stefanie Martini. Welcome.

Stefanie Martini: Hi.

Jace Lacob: So in The Gold, you play Marnie Palmer. In preparing for the role, you read Marnie Palmer's memoir, Goldfinger and Me. What did you make of the real life Marnie, and how did that inform your portrayal?

Stefanie Martini: Well, the real life Marnie, she's a real character. She's got a lot of strength. She's got a lot of opinions. She's had quite a mad life. I mean, I'd love to do a TV show just about her, to be honest. But I think in this series, she's more like the moral compass for John, I think. she's a bit more steady and moral. Whereas I think in real life and in her memoir, she's got a bit more of a kick to her, if that makes sense.

But it was nice to know all of that and have all of that knowledge in there, like, she's not rubbing, smelting, illegal, stolen gold or anything. But in real life, she's mischievous and she doesn't always play by the rules and she's determined, she's sassy. And I tried to bring that in there as well. She's tough and she's not afraid of saying what she thinks. And she's led quite by her gut and her heart, I think. So I did try and put all of that in there, but also in the series, it's more about their relationship and what happens with the gold and what happens to John and that rather than really her crazy life, you know?

Jace Lacob: As an actor playing a real-life figure, was there ever a temptation or drive to sit down with the real Marnie Palmer, or does that complicate matters for you as an actor?

Stefanie Martini: No, I would have loved to do that. The opportunity didn't arise. That's where I'm from and that's what my voice used to be like before I went to drama school. So, my dad sat next to her old neighbor at a wedding, and then he called me up and was like, hey love, do you want to get Marnie's number? Because I was sat next to her neighbor the other day at this wedding. And then there was some… oh I went to a funeral, and I saw, I think a great uncle or something, and he was like, oh, I used to date Marnie Palmer. And I was like, what the hell? Like, she's really, really linked into my life, but we've never met. But I think she's awesome. Yes I would have loved to meet her, but it didn't work out that way.

Jace Lacob: That's incredible, incredible, though! Oh my God. And I love your Bristolian accent. I think it's great.

Stefanie Martini: It's my family's accent.

Jace Lacob: You’ve said the process of filming The Gold was like, “I felt like I was lost in an ‘80s time warp for weeks.” And you've got that huge wig on, the clothes, and apparently you also accidentally smashed your mobile phone. Did it feel like you truly were in a time warp making this?

Stefanie Martini: Yeah, absolutely. That was when we were in Spain, and I did, I broke my phone, I smashed my phone as soon as I got there. And then production gave me a burner phone, and then I forgot that you get the little pin numbers to get in. Can you remember you used to have like a four digit pin number, and they gave it to me on a piece of paper, and then I lost it.

Jace Lacob: Oh no.

Stefanie Martini: I couldn't get into the burner phone. I just had to be like, well, look, clearly I need to lose my grip on reality for this. And that's fine. That's fine. But yeah, the places we were filming there were, the hotels, they haven't changed. They have not changed since the ‘80s. And we were all staying in the hotel that we were filming at in these sort of mad rooms where there was like a mirrored ceiling and a hot tub, and the bed is on a platform and everything's like old pink velvet. It was really, really weird. But yeah, the costumes were amazing. Putting the wig on was like playing a character. It was like putting the character on, really. It was a good era, I loved it. I'd have been very happy with those clothes, to be honest.

Jace Lacob: Better than 1973, maybe, Jane Tennison?

Stefanie Martini: Yeah, I think so. I've got to say, yeah.

Jace Lacob: So Series 1 finds the police chasing down the stolen gold and the villains trying to push it back into the market. And then there's Marnie and John out in the countryside. And Marnie's story is really a love story. For the first few episodes, she's off in her own show, really. What was it like showing this very different side to the Brink's-Mat plot?

Stefanie Martini: Well, I wasn't really aware of it to be honest, because I was just in the house with Tom. Just me and Tom and the kids in the house. What's amazing about this show is there's so many… I mean, I'm such a fan, like a real serious fan of loads of the actors in The Gold. And there's a few that I've still not crossed paths with. But it was a real joy for me when the show finally came out to see all of their different plot lines and their characters, and everyone's really bold in their acting, but also very real. It feels quite grounded, but quite brave, and I loved it.

And yeah, mine was very much a love story and two people finding the limits of their relationship, really. And I loved working with Tom. He's a really good friend. So it felt very easy and playful and nice. And I think I felt quite lucky, actually, to have that sort of a part, because the rest of it was so plop, plop, plop, plop, plop, and I felt like I got to be quite grounded and play more with the emotional side of what happens with this crime and this betrayal and greed. I really enjoyed it, yeah.

Jace Lacob: I was going to ask, you have known Tom Cullen for over a decade at this point. What was it like reuniting with Tom, and how did you use that long friendship with him to get at this very deep rapport that Marnie and John have between each other?

Stefanie Martini: So yeah, I met Tom on a rooftop at a house party when I was 22.

Jace Lacob: Wow.

Stefanie Martini: Very, very, very long time ago. I can't even remember what we spoke about, but I had my hula hoop with me. And that's it. It was about 6am. But, yeah, we got on really well. And then we were kind of neighbors. We saw each other loads. But we weren't really close. We just sort of knew each other. And then when I came in to do the chemistry read with him at the end of the audition process, straight away I was like, oh, hi, great. It's you. I felt instantly relaxed. And it was really, really easy.

And I think there's a lot of trust there. And I think John and Marnie are childhood sweethearts. They're comfortable with each other. They're playful, they're silly. They've sort of done rags to riches together. They see the world as something that they tackle together. And I think because I already knew Tom and because we already had a friendship there, it just made it a lot, a lot, a lot easier. And also, he's a very playful, funny human being anyway, so it genuinely made me laugh all the time. It wasn't hard.

MIDROLL

Jace Lacob: And we’re back with actor Stefanie Martini. Your introduction as Marnie Palmer comes in Episode 1 when she rides out astride a horse in full riding gear to greet her husband John who has just arrived home with some new gold items from his shop.

CLIP

Marnie: What’re you doing home, then?

John: Picked up a few bits.

Marnie: Oh yeah? Trying to sneak them past me, we’re you?

John: Well there’s not much chance of that, is there?

Marnie: Ooh, these’ll do.

John: Oh, come on love. There’s four grams of gold there.

Marnie: So what am I worth then, in grams of gold?

John: Go on then, go on.

Jace Lacob: How does that juxtaposition of the domestic and the equine sum up Marnie?

Stefanie Martini: Yes, she's obsessed with horses, really, really obsessed with them. It's yeah, different kinds of wealth, isn't it? That's what she likes to spend her time doing. And I think she'd grown up dreaming of having her own horses and having enough land to keep them on, or enough money to go to a stables and all of this stuff. I imagine she was mucking out horses for free just to be around them a lot as a child, you know. So I think to be able to ride in on a horse and offer to make her husband a sandwich is probably a lifelong goal.

Which I think also means a lot because, I guess the difference between Marnie and John is at the beginning of the series you see where they're at and it's good, like it's really good, and that's most people's dreams. And that's enough for her, but it's not enough for him. She likes stuff. She likes money, she likes nice clothes. She used to be a hairdresser. She's quite a lot about appearance and feels good when she thinks she looks great or thinks she has nice stuff or she gets to go to great places and all of this. But I think the difference between her and John is that that's enough. The house is enough. He is enough. Being able to ride horses is enough. Having their children is enough. She's not chasing the gold in the same way that he is.

Jace Lacob: No, and I think that she has all of those things, her life has already been transformed before the Brink's-Mat theft. She has her happy ending and John is chasing something else entirely. And I love her enthusiasm for life, her excitement when she sees John in the Scadlynn's advert on television.

CLIP

John (on TV): Gold! You’ve got it, we want it. Best prices guaranteed. No amount too big or small. Send us your gold or visit us at these markets. Scadlynn, we want your gold!

Marnie: I knew you’d end up in Hollywood, John, with those eyes of yours.

John: West Country TV at midnight is hardly Hollywood, Marnie.

Jace Lacob: Does she see danger ahead or merely opportunity?

Stefanie Martini: I think she thinks she knows him. And I think she probably is aware of that slightly darker drive in John. But I think she really believes they're a team and they're in it together and that they're that they're completely on the same level. But then obviously he starts hiding things from her.

Jace Lacob: He's running a gold smelter in the backyard day and night. Marnie just says, you know, I won't do the Bristolian accent, she says, “Careful there, John. Don't you go burning down the house.” Is she ever suspicious or does she trust him implicitly? Is their marriage based on a sort of fundamental trust and understanding of each other that gets used?

Stefanie Martini: Yeah, I think her trust does get abused by him. She doesn't think he's an angel. She knows he's done some dodgy stuff. She's not under any illusions that he is… this is how I interpret it and this is how I played it, but, completely on the straight and narrow.

I mean, that's just really struck me because I'm like, yeah, he does really abuse her trust, actually. It's a thing of going, I really know this person. And maybe I'll turn a cheek or I'll look the other way for a few things. But it would never be that bad, thinking that I would know or she would know the boundaries within. Maybe there's some twisting of the rules, but actually it ends up being something bigger than she could ever have imagined.

But I think she's smart. And this was the interesting thing playing it really is that I'm also still kind of undecided is, how much does she know? And in the script and in the series she one hundred percent believes him and doesn't think he's done anything wrong. But then, like, how much is that slightly nagging intuition there in her head, and how much is she squashing that?

Jace Lacob: She has to return this luxury car that she's purchased and from her perspective, she thinks that they're doing well. He's running the smelter all day and night. There are adverts on the telly. I mean, it seems like things are going great. And then suddenly he's coming up with this excuse that they don't have any money. So I think the question is sort of, does it trigger her Spidey sense at that point? Is she maybe testing her own faith in him, or is she still believing this man?

Stefanie Martini: I think she believes because she wants to believe. I think probably on some level, she knows. Probably on some level, she's got a feeling. But if he's told her this is what this is and it's all fine, then okay it's all fine. I'm going to trust him. He's the love of my life, all these things, is how I interpreted it.

Jace Lacob: By Episode 2, things start to turn for the Palmers. And Marnie remembers the life before the money. John left school without being able to read or write.

CLIP

Marnie: Look at the life you have now, John. Neither of us could’ve dreamt of this.

John: I know. I know, love. But the thing about gold is if you have enough of it, you can have a life you didn’t have any business dreaming about.

Jace Lacob: Looking back, is this where Marnie and John cross over some invisible line, a point of no return where had he pulled back maybe they would be okay but this is this demarcation in their life?

Stefanie Martini: Yeah, I think so. I think that's absolutely it. I think that's where it starts to cross over. Yeah it's what I was just saying, the sense of going, I'm giving you warnings, I'm telling you my opinion, and I'm just going to hope and trust that you're going to listen to that and do the right thing. Yeah, I think so.

Jace Lacob: John talks to Marnie about his past and his dad,

CLIP

John: Always sleeping here and there. Blind drunk. Begging. You know, the other kids used to ask me, they used to say to me, "Hey, isn't that your Dad?" And I'd say no, and I'd made sure they never asked again. Yeah, I saw him. I lay in bed every night and I thought, is that where I'd be? Is that who I'd be? And I decided that the only way that I could--the only way I could stop that from happening, that the only protection I could get, was money. And so I grafted. I got my first wage at 12. I got my first shop at 18. And from then on, graft, money, graft, money, graft, money. Just trying to get some distance. Look, this job that I'm doing now, it's legit, and it is big, and it's not gonna last forever. It's another month, two. Two at most, and then, um, and then I'll be too far gone, and he won't ever catch me. And I won't ever be him.

Marnie: You won’t John. No you won’t.

Jace Lacob: What was it like filming this hugely emotional scene with Tom?

Stefanie Martini: Oh, I mean, he's great. And he did it in like one shot I think, because we were running out of time. We were running out of time and he just pulled it out of the bag with absolutely no time. I have a really clear memory of that. Because, yeah, I'm pushing him and pushing him and then he sort of breaks a bit. And I think it takes a lot for that character to speak about their upbringing really in that way. And I think it's a sign where she sees a real side of vulnerability in him and opening up. And that's kind of what keeps them together, I think, is moments like that.

Jace Lacob: It is clear to me in the scene that the most important thing to Marnie is John, their marriage, this life that they built together. On its surface, The Gold is about a heist and its fallout. But it really is this incredibly human drama about greed, opportunity, social mobility and class hierarchy in Britain. Having made this, what did you walk away with in terms of a sense about the people involved with Brink's-Mat?

Stefanie Martini: Oh, I think it's incredible. My favorite thing about it is that they didn't even really plan to get the gold. That's my favorite thing. So you see all of these people who would… that line of, have no business dreaming about it, all of a sudden they've got this hand coming down from the ether going, here you go, what are you going to do with this? And to see people… yeah, the networks connect, the class networks connect. And the tension between that. Yeah, I thought it was fascinating. I thought it was a really nice study, actually, of the British class system, which is, I know not something that Americans have in the same way and is quite hard to wrap your head around. But people being smart all the way through, smarter than you would think that they would be.

But yeah, I really like the breadth and the spread of people across the country. What I liked about Marnie and John and representing that is that you've got quite the hard world of London. But then to come out of that and come into the countryside and I think people assume that the countryside is like, everyone's posh and drinking tea and eating scones. And actually it can be not as gritty, but it can be gritty. And people come from a tough life as well. And I felt like I knew as soon as I got the script through, I was like, I know this person, I know these people, and this is where I'm from. And it's nice to be able to do something in my own accent where I'm not playing someone stupid or someone who's a maid or like generally rural accents, again, which is a class thing in England, get sort of shown as people that are less than or slightly idiotic. And I don't think John or Marnie are. I think they're really switched on, smart people. And I was really happy to be able to play that.

Jace Lacob: Marnie buys tickets for the family to take a holiday in Tenerife. John's working insane hours. He's shouting at the girls. At this point he's exhausted.

CLIP

John: What’s this, then?

Marnie: Tenerife. We leave on Friday. Two weeks.

John: I can’t.

Marnie: You can.

John: I’m not finished.

Marnie: You can’t live like this John. You’re working every night, breathing in God knows what, then driving half asleep to every market in England, you’re going to kill yourself.

Daughter: We’re going on holiday!

Jace Lacob: What's on the line for Marnie here? This trip to Tenerife that is supposed to be this relaxing thing, what's on the line?

Stefanie Martini: I mean, their marriage, their family life. I guess she feels like she's not even seeing him. His health. She's worried about him so she's just taking matters into her own hands and is forcing the situation, I think, quite smartly. I mean, it changes the whole course of the story, doesn't it? Imagine if she hadn't done that. In real life, in real life as well this is what happened.

Jace Lacob: So that brings me to my next question. Based on the reveal in the smelter at the end of Episode 3, it's clear that Marnie succeeded in convincing John to take that holiday with her and the girls to Spain. What can you tease about the back half of The Gold Series 1, and how does that trip provide a huge turning point in their lives?

Stefanie Martini: I don't know, what can I say? I don't know what I'm allowed to say. It's quite fun doing half of the series at a time. Well, it ends up really working out for the best for John. That's all I'll say. She's smart, she's smart. You should always trust your wife, I think. Yeah, that trip shapes the whole future of his whole life and career and her whole life and career without either of them really knowing it.

Jace Lacob: Stefanie Martini, thank you so very much.

Stefanie Martini: Thanks.

Next time, Inspector Maigret and his wife Louise await the results of their ultrasound.

CLIP

Maiget: Sweetheart. I’m sorry you had to get here on your own.

Louise: I’m not an invalid. Everything alright?

Maiget: Yeah, everything’s fine.

Nurse: Morning, morning. Are we ready?

Join us next Sunday as we talk with actor Stefanie Martini, again! That’s right, she’s doing double duty this fall on MASTERPIECE, playing both Marnie Palmer in The Gold, and Louise Maigret in Maigret. Tune in to hear Stefanie talk about the ups and downs of being a psychiatric nurse married to an unorthodox detective.