PICK OF THE BEST FILMS

RALPH Fiennes assumed his character in The Dig was a piece of fiction when he first read the script. The new Netflix film tells the extraordinary story of Sutton Hoo; the excavation – as the Second World War loomed – of a medieval grave in Suffolk, where a 27m-long ship was buried.

“I was fairly ignorant, to be honest, If someone said

Sutton Hoo, I would probably go, ‘Yeah, battleship or burial ship’ and the helmet would come into my mind. And then I read the script, and I was very moved by the characters.”

The historical drama also stars Carey Mulligan as wealthy widow Edith Pretty, who hires amateur archaeologist Basil Brown to excavate the burial mounds on her estate.

Interestingly, when the treasure Basil excavated was first shown to the general public in 1951, his name was not mentioned – but it now appears alongside that of

Edith in the British Museum’s permanent display.

The Dig is a nuanced story, in which there is a lot happening beneath the surface with characters.

“Those films are risky, of course, because they can fall flat. You know, delicate human drama can be another word for ‘boring’ – but if the inherent internal life is available, you can lean into something that’s not telling you everything, because there’s a tension. That’s what a good novel does, I think.

“If the film is well structured and well executed, people are drawn in and it reaches deeper into you, I think.”

The Dig is available to watch now on Netflix

GEORGIA HUMPHREYS

Ralph Fiennes as Basil and Monica Dolan as May