Genre: Historical Drama

Age rating: 12

Length: 1h 52m

My rating: 4 stars

Based on a true story, The Dig reimagines the unearthing of Anglo-Saxon treasures buried at Sutton Hoo on the eve of the First World War, by self-taught archeologist Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) and Suffolk landowner Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan). When Pretty finds what looks like a burial mound on her land she hires Brown to investigate. When he digs up a ship’s iron rivet, word spreads that this could be an extremely important burial ground, possibly of an Anglo-Saxon king.

Experts and helpers join the dig, muscling in on the find and trying to lay an early claim on the perceived treasures. There are a couple of superfluous sub-plots involving friendships and love stories, which introduce further characters, played by Lily James, Johnny Flynn, Ben Chaplin and Ken Stott. That aside, the over-arching story is of one of the most significant historical finds of our age, one that many of us would have first learnt about in the school room.

Best bits: The film is heart-warming, moving and reassuringly British and I was thoroughly entertained, albeit at a slower pace than I’m used to. The stringent health and safety measures and protocols we have today would mean that this 100-year-old story would not have unfolded in this manner had it occurred in the present and I found that rather charming.

Fatal flaws: The introduction of Johnny Flynn’s fictional Rory Lomax created padding for the film but was probably necessary as the plot would be thin otherwise. In the real story, the photographers were in fact two women, but they have been left out completely; I guess that’s Holywood for you.

Fresh or fruity?: Fresh. This story has been done justice in spades (groan).

Find it on: Netflix