The Duke
classified 12APlease note: This was screened in March 2022
Roger Michell's (Notting Hill, Enduring Love) final film is delightful Ealing comedy-style true crime caper about a bizarre art heist.
In 1961, Kempton Bunton (Jim Broadbent), a 60-year-old taxi driver, stole Francisco Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery's history. Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the Government agreed to provide television free of charge to the elderly - while his downtrodden wife (Helen Mirren) tries to keep up appearances. What happened next became the stuff of legend and only 50 years later did the full story emerge...
A startling revelation of how a good man set out to change the world, this is a wonderfully uplifing tale, and a more than fitting swansong for Michell.