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The Dig

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02:08

The Dig

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• Romance
• Drama

• 2020
• Simon Stone
• 111 mins
• 12A

Summary

Wealthy widow Edith Pretty is convinced that treasures lie beneath the surface of burial mounds on her Sutton Hoo estate. With the Second World War beckoning, she hires amateur archaeologist Basil Brown to excavate the site and he makes a historic discovery: an Anglo-Saxon ship burial.

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IMDB

Review

A star rating of 3 out of 5.

Hanna Flint

Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan bring a lot of heart to this drama about the excavation of an Anglo-Saxon burial ship in Suffolk in 1938. Upper-class widow Edith Pretty (Mulligan) invites working-class archaeologist Basil Brown (Fiennes) to excavate the grassy mounds on the edge of her Sutton Hoo estate. He's a self-taught, no-nonsense man of few words while she's a pleasant yet melancholy mother, in an increasingly fragile state, trying to do right by her son and her own legacy. Brown and Pretty's odd-couple united front against the elements and pompous historical organisations is engaging to watch, but a romantic subplot involving Lily James and Ben Chaplin is an unwelcome distraction. The Dig offers an interesting insight into a plot of British archaeological history, but it could have dug deeper into Brown's story.

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7.1/10

How to watch

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Streaming

• Netflix

Credits

Cast

rolenameEdith PrettyCarey MulliganBasil BrownRalph FiennesPeggy PiggottLily JamesRory LomaxJohnny FlynnStuart PiggottBen ChaplinCharles PhillipsKen StottMay BrownMonica DolanWilliam GrimesArsher Ali

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Crew

rolenameDirectorSimon Stone

Details

Theatrical distributor

Netflix

Released on

2021-01-15

Languages

English

Formats

Colour

News & features about The Dig

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  Is The Dig on Netflix based on a true story?
  
  Here's how closely the Netflix film sticks to the true story of the Sutton Hoo excavation

• 
  
  Meet the cast of Netflix film The Dig
  
  The period drama features some of the nation's finest actors including Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes and Lily James.

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  The Dig release date – Netflix movie starring Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes and Lily James
  
  Everything you need to know about Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan and Lily James's latest Netflix venture.

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