The Dig (2021) on Netflix
In 1939, Edith Pretty hires Basil Brown, a self-taught archaeologist, to dig the burial mounds on her estate at Sutton Hoo. In one mound he finds iron rivets from a ship.
- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb7.1/1090,607 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes88%
Trailer
Plot summary
Edith Pretty owns a rural estate at Sutton Hoo near Woodbridge in Suffolk, and in 1939 she engages Basil Brown, a self-taught archaeologist, to open its large burial mounds. She first offers him the wage he had from the Ipswich Museum; he calls it inadequate, and she raises it to £2 a week. The archaeologists who once employed him prefer a Roman villa and take no interest when he argues that the mounds are Anglo-Saxon rather than Viking. With helpers from the estate he works into the most promising mound. Edith is a widow with a young son, Robert, and she and the boy share his interest in archaeology and astronomy. His wife May backs his poorly paid work, and a doctor has warned Edith to avoid stress.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Dig (2021)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film shows Peggy Piggott as an inexperienced archaeologist hired because her light weight would not disturb the delicate dig; by 1939 the real Piggott had studied archaeology at Cambridge and London. In reality Stuart Piggott was 29 and Peggy 27, only two years apart, not the older man of the film.
- The film invents Rory Lomax, Edith Pretty's cousin, as a photographer and love interest for Peggy Piggott. The site was in fact photographed by two teachers, Mercie Lack and Barbara Wagstaff, and by Ordnance Survey archaeological officer O. G. S. Crawford; the two women were cut from book and film to make room for the romance.
- Nicole Kidman and Ralph Fiennes were in talks to star in 2018, but Kidman left the project in 2019 when her schedule clashed with another film, and Carey Mulligan was cast in her place.
- The dig's real figures were mis-aged for the film: Charles Phillips was in his late 30s at the time but is played by Ken Stott, then in his 60s. Edith Pretty was in her mid 50s, was to be played by 53-year-old Nicole Kidman, and was finally played by Carey Mulligan, then in her mid 30s.
