Jim Broadbent cast as Great Train Robbery detective

Broadbent said Butler, pictured right in 1968, was "a fascinating copper of the old school"

Jim Broadbent will play the detective charged with tracking down the Great Train Robbers in the second of two BBC dramas marking the 50th anniversary of the August 1963 raid.

The actor said he was "thrilled" to be asked to portray Tommy Butler in The Great Train Robbery: A Copper's Tale.

The drama will follow A Robber's Tale, which will view the heist from the perspective of its perpetrators.

Luke Evans will star in that film as Bruce Reynolds, the raid's key planner.

Broadbent said it would be "great fun" to play Butler, "a fascinating copper of the old school", in the drama, to air later this year.

"I have such strong memories of the massive impact of the actual robbery and it is wonderful to find out from the script so much of the real story."

Chris Chibnall, executive producer and writer of the Great Train Robbery dramas, said Broadbent was "a dream piece of casting".

The actor won an Oscar in 2001 for playing the husband of writer Iris Murdoch in Iris and a Bafta in 2007 for playing the campaigner Lord Longford.

Butler, whose astuteness earned him the nickname "Grey Fox", led the investigation into the Great Train Robbery which resulted in several of the robbers receiving lengthy sentences.

He retired in 1969 and died the following year at the age of 57.