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Netflix - The Dig

70 replies

mrwalkensir · 29/01/2021 23:57

A few minor issues eg Carey Mulligan 20 years too young, Peggy Piggott actually already being a very capable archaeologist...but otherwise just wonderful. And a fictional character presumably just in tribute to Detectorists' beautiful theme tune. Might have to watch again...

OP posts:
ItsNotNormalLove · 01/02/2021 15:16

@SleepingMammoth oh I had no idea!

ItsNotNormalLove · 01/02/2021 15:17

@korawick12345 thanks I'll look that up

LifeInAHamsterWheel · 01/02/2021 15:50

Would this be suitable for DC aged 10 & 12?

Boredsillyathome · 01/02/2021 15:58

Watched this yesterday it was a lovely film and really interesting, Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes were brilliant

Pebbles574 · 01/02/2021 16:02

@LifeInAHamsterWheel

Would this be suitable for DC aged 10 & 12?
Yes, I should think so.

There is one scene with Lily James naked in a bath (but not fully seen) and some love-making outside (clothed) seen in passing.
The only other consideration is whether younger children might be upset at the storyline of a young boy losing his mother (his father is already dead).
But it's all very tastefully and beautifully done.

yetmorenamechanging · 01/02/2021 16:10

Just watched last night. I was in floods of tears. It's so beautifully done. I've been around some digs too and felt it captured the atmosphere of that part really well too. The slow pace of the film matched that too. In the beginning I found it too slow and by the end I didn't want it to end.

But OMG Ben Chapman (Peggy's husband) was gorgeous! They all were really but I couldn't take my eyes off him!

LifeInAHamsterWheel · 01/02/2021 18:05

Thank you @Pebbles574

Cheermonger · 01/02/2021 18:16

I quite liked it, but hated the soundtrack. Far too much tinkly piano.

Eyjafjallajokulldottir · 01/02/2021 18:20

Oh I found this really dull! And I love anything archeology related. I fast forwarded quite a few times through the bits about the mums illness and the love interest, i wanted more of the actual dig!

Pebbles574 · 01/02/2021 18:32

@yetmorenamechanging - I just don't find Ben Chaplin attractive at all!
I remember him playing the love interest in Apple Tree Yard and thinking, "What? She wouldn't be interested in him?" Grin

lazylinguist · 01/02/2021 18:45

I really enjoyed it. I thought Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan were great. I thought her son was good too, although I found the scene at the end in the boat very unconvincing.

lazylinguist · 01/02/2021 18:46

I ust don't find Ben Chaplin attractive at all.
Lord no, me neither. Although the character he was playing didn't help!

CaptainMyCaptain · 02/02/2021 18:18

I thought the point was that Peggy was a competent archaeologist in her own right who had written papers but the horrible man from the British Museum belittled her. She thought he had read her work but he only wanted her because she was small and light and wouldn't damage the boat. It was only a moment but then she was ignored by all the men including her husband (secretly gay?).

Covidcorvid · 02/02/2021 18:20

I loved it, great programme.

Curlyshabtree · 02/02/2021 18:27

The accuracy of the accents made it for me. As a pp said the Suffolk accent often ends up sounding more West Country. Ralph Fiennes spoke like my grandad did. The voice coach is a well known expert on Suffolk dialect.

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mrwalkensir · 02/02/2021 22:50

Ben Chaplin and Lily James should have been about the same age, so that was a bit weird

OP posts:
LuluJakey1 · 02/02/2021 23:04

I am not a fan of Lily James and found her irritating. The stupid story about why she was in a ridiculously short skirt was pointless . I don't know why Edith Pretty had to be blond, waif like and beautiful when really she was about 53, dark, quite plain and 'sturdy'. It's not as if the character was in a romantic storyline that was key to the film.
However, apart from that I loved it. Ralph Fiennes was wonderful as was Carey Mulligan- both totally believable. All of the minor local characters were great. The little boy was lovely and the actor did a fantastic job. It was subtle, beautifully filmed and the wife of Basil Brown was excellent too. I found it beautifully observed.
The only overdone things were Lilly James and the Ken Stott role - he was dreadful.

Knitwit99 · 03/02/2021 09:36

I really enjoyed this. I hadn't realised when I started watching what it was actually about so it took me a while to realise that it was just a fairly gentle real-life story with none of the murder or sex or sci-fi monsters that lots of tv shows seem to involve nowadays. I thought the characters were really believable and honest.

I was surprised they filled the boat in again at the end, I had no idea that's what they would have done. Is it still all covered up in real life, is there nothing there to see? I have only vaguely heard of Sutton Hoo, I am very bad.

dancingbymyself · 03/02/2021 09:45

Ben Chaplin has morphed into Robert Lindsay! Ben Chaplin was very pretty when he was younger.

FenEel · 03/02/2021 10:37

Is it still all covered up in real life, is there nothing there to see?

You can see the mounds, with signs showing what is inside, but there is also a big visitor centre with replicas of the treasure because the British Museum snaffled most of it (I believe - my disclaimer is this is all from memory and it was a few years ago that I went), and lots of other interesting information about Anglo Saxons. Also you can look around Mrs Pretty's house which has information about the dig itself, which was my favourite bit, as I had just read The Dig.

MarinPrime · 03/02/2021 11:00

You can see the mounds, with signs showing what is inside, but there is also a big visitor centre with replicas of the treasure because the British Museum snaffled most of it (I believe - my disclaimer is this is all from memory and it was a few years ago that I went)

Edith Pretty was legally declared the owner of the treasure and donated all of it to the British Museum. Amazing generosity, she could have sold it all.
She was later offered a CBE and turned it down.

Knitwit99 · 03/02/2021 11:29

You can see the mounds, with signs showing what is inside

Wow, that's such a weird though, that the ship is basically still buried in there. I wonder why she gave everything to the British Museum and didn't give anything to the more local museum? Especially when she got on so well with Mr Brown and he was employed locally, is that right?

I think I might buy the book now.

MarinPrime · 03/02/2021 11:41

Knitwit99 in the film she said she was donating the treasure to the British Museum, rather than Ipswich, because she wanted as many people as possible to be able to see it.

nipersvest · 03/02/2021 11:49

Enjoyed the film and I do like CM but she was far too young for the role, the health decline just wasn't believable.

Am growing to detest Lily James, she's just in everything.

Pebbles574 · 03/02/2021 12:53

@nipersvest

Enjoyed the film and I do like CM but she was far too young for the role, the health decline just wasn't believable.

Am growing to detest Lily James, she's just in everything.

Yes, I also found her too young. In real life Edith Pretty was mid-fifties and Basil Brown was younger than her! As it was, the slight romance storyline seemed a bit 'off'. His wife was more the age Edith should have been.

My friend who is an actor in her fifties gets most annoyed by this sort of casting down. She says there are just no parts for middle-aged women any more as thirty-somethings are made up to be glamorous oldies! Meanwhile, she is only offered matrons, grandmother and old-crone parts!