The Dig

A pleasant enough distraction 

( It needed rather more archaeology. I liked the descriptions of fieldwork, how rabbits were destructive to archaeology. How grave thieves would have destroyed a mound. )

The Dig retells the story of the evacuation of Sutton Hoo- The site became world famous with the discovery of an Anglo Saxon Longboat on the eve of World War Two. 

Beyond that is its a BBC Sunday evening drama shoehorned into 2 hours. 

It is quite a melancholy. This is a middle aged film. A world of Widows, The Infirm, and Childless

The scenery is beautiful. This is after all Deep England 

The cast is well chosen- Carey Mulligan is now playing older woman. Ralph Fiennes does a proletarian

Ben Chaplin and Ken Stott round out the cast

Really it is two stories. First Edith Pretty- That is actually her name- (Mulligan), a Widowed country Lady hires Basil Brown (Fiennes) to excavate the mounds on her estate She has an interest in Archaeology and is in fading health. Pretty had a lifelong interest in archaeology, and wants to know what is under the mounds.  Fiennes is an autodidact, who has quarreled with the local museum Hired by Pretty  Fienes sets to work.

Its almost a romance, two people one married but childless, one a mother but widow- exploring their mutual passion  

As I mentioned this is Deep England, before the War and the NHS. The film draws an unspoken parallel between the Colonel, the Lord of the Manor ( The Thane in his Hall-) Pretty's late Husband and the Anglo Saxon Thane who lies under the sand 

One scene I enjoyed was Fiennes and Mulligan sheltering from the rain and talking about their Education, his informal hers cut short 

Then Ken Stott with almost an RP accent intervenes as a representative of the British museum - Stott is rude and arrogant. He also refers to the folk beyond the Rhine as JARMANS  We then get intertwined with the story of the dig  story of a sham marriage between a gay professor- Chaplin and Lily James 

Lily James is beautiful in glasses, and stockings. 

Ben Chaplin is too old I get he is supposed to be James professor but it seems too old

. Also with war coming is there is an issue with James being unmarried. Well in the end, the Ship is uncovered and despite the war, and the passing of time, despite the sickness 

Life goes on

As I said, good for a Sunday evening