Here is the latest film to roll off the production line of cheerful warming British underdog comedies. As originally showcased in a 2012 Channel 4 series, it is the true story of how self-made Burnley businessman Dave Fishwick took on London’s elite banking institutions to get a licence to open his own bank serving the local community. More accurately, this film is a heavily fictionalised version of that story, slickly packaged into a familiar formula by the team behind Fisherman’s Friends.
Rory Kinnear is brilliant as Fishwick, who made his fortune selling vans and minibuses but has never forgotten his roots. Kinnear gives the character a winning mix of down-to-earth blokiness with a rags-to-riches flamboyance (and a bit of ego to match the flash car). The film opens in the wake of the 2008 financial crash: Fishwick’s customers are struggling to borrow from the high street, so he’s started lending them money. But to operate as a bank he needs a licence, and the Eton poshos regulating the banking sector decide he’s not the right sort of chap.
