ACE OF SPADES (THE DIG)

The Sutton Hoo excavation in Suffolk in 1939 unearthed an amazing haul of Anglo Saxon artefacts from an ancient burial ground.

But it also inspired the Daily Telegraph's TV critic, John Preston to pen a novel about it after he discovered his aunt had been involved.

'The Dig,' which was published in 2007, takes actual information about the find and builds around it a tale of loss, academic snobbery and regret.

Now Preston's novel has been adapted for the screen by the playwright Moira Buffini.

The result is a solid, workmanlike adaptation for Netflix in which Ralph Fiennes, Carey Mulligan, Lily James, Johnny Flynn, Ben Chaplin and Ken Stott get to huff and puff over an amazing archaeological find.

Directed by Simon Stone, Fiennes plays Basil Brown, a local archaeologist who is engaged by Mulligan's widow Edith Pretty to lead a dig on some burial mounds on her Suffolk estate.

With Britain on the brink of World War II, archaeologists are keen to complete their excavations before the conflict erupts and a moratorium is placed upon the digs.

As a result, Brown is lent upon by the Ipswich Museum's James Reid Moir, played by Paul Ready, to drop the burial mounds project for another dig they deem more important.

Brown, however, ignores them and goes about his business.

He enjoys chatting with Edith's young son, Archie Barnes' Robert who is fascinated by his knowledge of astrology.

Edith, however, has health problems which start to take a physical toll upon her.

Early on in the excavation, mud also slides and engulfs Brown, burying him alive and he has to be dug out by his crew and Edith with their bare hands.

Eventually, he and his crew make a remarkable discovery, coming across a longboat in the mound.

Brown is convinced it predates the Vikings and a bid by Reid Moir to muscle his way into the dig is rebuffed by Edith who asks her cousin Johnny Flynn's Rory Lomax to assist Brown instead.

News of the find, however, quickly spreads and Ken Stott's pompous Cambridge archaeologist Charles Phillips arrives at the site, insisting he should take charge of the dig and dismissing Brown's find as the luck of a sheer amateur.

Phillips is there to advance the interests of the British Museum and is granted permission to bring a crew that includes Ben Chaplin's Stuart Piggott, his wife Peggy (played by Lily James) and Eamon Farren's John Brailsford.

However Philllips' academic vanity and high handed and mistaken dismissal of Brown as an ignorant amateur initially grates with the Suffolk man who quits the project.

He returns to his devoted and very patient wife, Monica Dolan's May.

However Robert is distraught at his departure and cycles miles to the Brown home to remind him he promised to let him star gaze through his telescope.

Brown relents and returns to the estate as part of Phillips' team but when Peggy Piggott uncovers a treasure horde on the longboat, it triggers a legal battle in which the British Museum tries to persuade Edith to let them purchase the find.

Moir and Peter McDonald's Guy Maynard from the Ipswich Museum also have designs on the horde and they lobby hard for the artefacts to be housed among their exhibits.

Stone and Buffini take a painstakingly methodical approach to bringing Preston's story to the big screen.

This means the film moves sometimes at a snail's pace, with an occasional burst of activity livening up proceedings.

The first half is dominated by the growing respect Fiennes and Mulligan's characters develop for each other.

However the film changes course in the second half as the Cambridge crew descends on the estate.

Suddenly Peggy's frustrations with her marriage and her growing suspicions that Stuart is in love with John Brailsford loom large.

Peggy develops feelings too for Johnny Flynn's Rory but he is due to join the RAF and risk his life for Queen and country.

At one point, an RAF airplane crashes during training on a nearby base into a Suffolk broad - providing a contemporary visual echo of the warrior whose longboat has been submerged in soil, as well as an unwelcome reminder of the gathering storm in World War II Europe.

These storylines pile up and often feel like a distraction from the exposé of academic snobbery, jealousy and pettiness that initially robbed Brown of his rightful place as an instigator of the dig when the treasure trove eventually went on display.

Fiennes, meanwhile, delivers a performance of great precision and humanity that towers over everyone else in Stone's handsome film.

Brown really is salt of the earth, even when he is also looked down upon by the academic establishment.

Despite the fact that he is so well read, they dismiss him as an amateur and raise eyebrows at his lack of any Oxbridge background.

Mulligan imbues Edith with a dignity but also does a decent job highlighting her increasing frailty.

Stott resurrects Arthur Lowe-style pomposity to the part of Phillips.

And while James, Flynn and Chaplin are competent in their roles, their romantic adventures fails to ignite.

Ready, however, does a decent job as the slippery Moir.

Dolan also makes an impact in a limited role as Brown's good hearted side.

Although the film is handsomely filmed by cinematographer Mike Eley, the film's pace and tone is too ponderous.

But if 'The Dig' achieves anything, it is how effectively it conveys the huge effort that goes into excavations of this kind.

In real life, archaeology does not comprise of gun toting academics like you'd see in the Indiana Jones films.

But watching 'The Dig' might have you reaching for 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' just to liven up proceedings.

Stone's film is handsomely made and earnestly acted like a lot of British wartime dramas.

Its problem is, though, it just lacks fizz.

('The Dig' was  given a limited release in UK cinemas on January 15, 2020 and was made available for streaming on Netflix on January 29, 2020)

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