Making history
THE DIG Unearthing the secrets of a classy period drama with a cast of gems…
It was difficult for the producers to get me to open the script, because the pitch is not something that you immediately go, ‘I recognise why that would be an interesting story,’” says director Simon Stone of
The Dig, a recreation of the excavation of an Anglo-Saxon burial mound in Sutton Hoo, Suffolk, in 1938. “But I remember reading the script on the Eurostar, and… I have no memory of the Channel or Paris or England.”
Such is the power of Moira Buffini’s screenplay, based on John Preston’s 2007 novel, that it speedily attracted a top-drawer cast. Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, Johnny Flynn, Ben Chaplin, Monica Dolan and Ken Stott all signed on immediately, while Carey Mulligan leapt into the breach when Nicole Kidman had to pull out last-minute due to scheduling conflicts.
“Carey, God bless her, read the script as soon as she got it and we were talking a few hours later,” Stone smiles. “She loved it. She moved her whole family from Los Angeles the day after we talked on the phone.”
The Dig tells of wealthy widow Edith Pretty (Mulligan), who employs working-class archaeologist Basil Brown (Fiennes) to excavate her land. What he discovers there is beyond Edith’s wildest
dreams, and the British Museum is soon on the case, usurping the dig. One of the excavators, meanwhile, is Peggy Piggot (Lily James), who was the aunt of Preston and is given special emphasis in both his book and Buffini’s adaptation.
Naturally Stone and his team could not film at Sutton Hoo – it now boasts a visitors’ centre and attracts thousands of tourists – but they did shoot in Suffolk, with production designer Maria Djurkovic matching the original site. Also a match, of sorts, is the real dig taking place on the eve of the Second World War, and the film coming out in these perilous times. The themes of making the most of life and striving to leave a legacy certainly resonate.
“This is the first moment in the history of the privileged western powers, since the Second World War, probably, or certainly in my living memory, that I can think, ‘I don’t know what the world’s going to look like in 10 years’ time,” says Stone. “In that regard, it is similar to the late’30s. I think when people watch the movie, they will respond to the sense of human solidarity and community effort in the face of a crisis.”
And who knows, perhaps Bafta and/or the Academy will also respond. The performances of Fiennes and Mulligan are particularly worthy of recognition. “You see it happening on the monitor in front of you, and you know it’s there! So I was just collecting little bits of treasure.” JG
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