Peter Viney's Blog

Directed by Chris Foggin
Written by Piers Ashworth

Rory Kinnear- Dave Fishwick
Chrissy Metz – Jessica, American journalist
Amit Shah – Oliver, Citizens Advice worker
Pearce Quigley- David Henshaw, manager at at Bank of Dave
Rob Delaney – Carlo Mancini, US loan shark
Hugh Bonneville – Sir Charles, major bank lawyer
Lelia Farzad – British lawyer for loan sharks
Dan Fogler- New Jersey cop

Netflix 2025 from 10 January

The first film, Bank of Dave was a surprise Netflix hit in 2023. A big enough hit to continue the story, with a bigger budget and American scenes.

This is the lightest of Netflix viewing. It’s not a great film by any stretch, but it passes an evening gently with a fine cast. It carries on themes from the first film, Dave’s love of karaoke, the fascination with Def Leppard, who again will appear at the end, and Dave (Rory Kinnear) will get to sing with them. Then there’s Burnley FC, and another scene at their stadium, Turf Moor. Rory Kinnear seems real as a Burnley businessman who sells white vans. The accent is spot on to my Southern ears. This is the man who played one of the best Hamlets I’ve seen, and the best Iago.

It’s a TRUE(ish) story. Dave Fishwick is a real person played by Rory Kinnear (and ‘the real Dave’ appears in the film briefly.) After the tiny Bank of Dave was established in Burnley to give loans to local businesses, the next chapter was taking on payday loan companies. These turned out to lift £300 debts to £3000 in a year, and would then make it hard to repay as debts spiralled. The ‘Bank of Dave’ is actually called Burnley Savings and Loans. It exists.

The real Dave was interviewed by The Radio Times:

The second one is hugely more real, because myself and David Henshaw, my right-hand man – he’s the bank manager of the Bank of Dave [and] he’s been with me right from the beginning – we went after them for real, and we dug a lot of people out of spirals of debt. And when we went after the payday loans, that’s real. The origination of payday loans is all in America. So we went after them in America for real. And [then] they came after me back. They really tried some dirty tricks and… it’s very similar to the movie. It was very important that we put in a lot of what really happened. We went after the payday loans, and we went knocking on the doors where we thought the addresses were, because I tried to pay them back what customers owed to them, and they just wouldn’t take my calls so I went after them. So me and David H went down to London, buzzing on all the doors. And they were just cupboards with PO boxes on them that related to America. So in the end, I had to go to America!

They really did it, and shut down several major (related) Payday Loan companies, including Wonga. Yes, the payday loan sharks did have their names in football shirts. I think it is to football clubs shame that they now carry online betting ads on their shirts. I include AFC Bournemouth, my team.

The film puts the focus on the American owner, Carlo Mancini, who lives in New Jersey, or as Dave says ‘Tony Soprano country’ and yes, this is the real thing. They travel to America to get him by serving papers, and that is genuinely scary action. It reminds me of being taken to an ‘Italian-American old style restaurant’ on Long Island on a Saturday night. The tablecloths were red & white checked. There were Chianti Ruffino bottles with candles. Most groups were a dozen people. Women at one end. Men in suits at the other. It was classic Godfather. The portions were huge. Have you seen deep fried mozzarella bigger than a slab of butter? It was suggested I take a photo, but I looked at the other tables and said, ‘this is NOT a place where you produce a camera.’

There is a running RomCom story bolted on with Oliver (Amit Shah) a sincere lad from Citizen’s Advice, and Jessica, an American journalist (Chrissy Metz). Jessica persuades her bosses that she can do a human interest story and travels to Burnley. Soon, she is teamed with Oliver in trying to get loan shark victims to testify. One can’t help observing that even by American standards she is a very large lady, so they make an incongruous but touching pairing.

Don’t get over-excited by Hugh Bonneville on the cast list. It’s a cameo reprise of his role as lawyer for the major UK banks.

An interesting sequence is where Dave takes a film crew (well, a local Burnley lad with a video camera) and tries to repay loans he has bought from some of the victims. He finally gets into the corporate HQ where they try everything to avoid taking repayment. That’s not just loan sharks, but major banks. We wanted to pay off a Citibank mortgage in the early 90s which had fifteen years left to run. We spent six months with a stream of reasons why they couldn’t take the money. In the end I had to employ a lawyer to force them to take the cheque.

There is the court scene, where Dave represents himself after the baddies have set him up on a money-laundering charge. Mancini’s British lawyer (played by Lelia Farzad) is the other major villain.

Once they get to the USA, they are aided by Jessica’s ex, a New Jersey cop who has been after Mancini for years. The photos on IMDB are as modest as the film, avoiding the US street shots that most film companies would show as evidence of where they splashed the cash.

They attend a Def Leppard concert at the end, and Def Leppard (playing themselves) save the day. If you’re sitting with the remote control wondering whether to watch another gruesome murder series, or an inane quiz or unlikely people twirling on a dance floor, try pressing the Netflix button. It’s mild,. but passes time pleasantly.

LINKS:
Bank of Dave (2023)

RORY KINNEAR
Bank of Dave (2023)
Peterloo (film)
Young Marx (play)
Othello, National Theatre, 2013 (Iago)
Hamlet, National Theatre, 2010 (Hamlet)
The Imitation Game (film) (Detective Nock)

AMIT SHAH
Never Have I Ever Chichester 2023
The Man In The Hat (film)

PEARCE QUIGLEY
The Merry Wives of Windsor – Globe 2019
As You Like It, Globe 2018
A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Globe 2013
The Changeling Wanamaker Playhouse, 2015
The Beaux Stratagem, National Theatre, 2015

HUGH BONNEVILLE
Bank of Dave (2023)
To Olivia (film)
Downton Abbey (film)
An Enemy of The People (play)
Paddington (film)