Crooks in Cloisters 1964

After a train robbery uses false signal lights to fool the locomotive into stopping, the gang led by Little Walter is forced to vanish from the city and seek refuge on a remote Cornish island. They purchase a ruined monastery with their ill-gotten gains and slip into the guise of monks, hoping the quiet of cloistered life will keep them safe. The group’s newest member, Bikini, Walter’s girlfriend, Barbara Windsor, is drafted as the cook despite having no cooking experience, and she tries to improvise meals for the wary newcomers.

At first, the transition is bumpy, but the crooks slowly adjust to a life of tending animals and growing crops. The tranquil routine is occasionally broken by the arrival of curious tourists and by two real monks who had to sell the monastery when hard times hit, including Brother Lucius, Corin Redgrave. The island’s rhythms begin to suit them, and the once-city-hardened gang grows fond of their pastoral days, finding themselves bending toward a gentler, more cooperative way of life. Phineas, a fisherman, Wilfrid Brambell, helps them manage supplies and navigate the unexpected streams of stolen goods that still come their way, making the new life feel almost legitimate.

As time passes, the mood softens further, even as Squirts McGinty, Bernard Cribbins, starts placing bets on dog races, a pastime that begins to draw police suspicion. The group’s change of heart intensifies the tension between old habits and new loyalties, and the line between crime and something kinder becomes increasingly blurred. Willy, who Melvyn Hayes plays, finds himself drawn to June, played by Francesca Annis, Phineas’s granddaughter, and the pair decide to slip away together, choosing a future outside the monastery’s walls.

When Walter decides the coast is clear to return to the outside world, the remaining gang members are reluctant to go, preferring the life they’ve built. Walter hands the island’s deeds back to the real monks who once owned it, a gesture that underscores how much the place—and their lives there—has changed them. As the group says their teary goodbyes, the police arrive, waiting in the wings to see what comes next, closing a chapter that began with a brazen heist and ended with an uneasy peace on a sun-dappled, windswept shore.