If you grew up in England, you probably heard about the Sutton Hoo dig in 1939 at school. But for those of us across the pond, The Dig on Netflix, the public has a lot to learn about the true story of one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.
Novelist John Preston began educating the masses with his 2007 novel The Dig, which has now been filmed by writer Moira Buffini and director Simon Stone, and began streaming on Netflix on Friday. But The Dig is based on a true story, the main source material is not so much history as a historical novel. So sit back, enjoy the story and enjoy the great performances of Carey Mulligan and Ralph Fiennes – but if you’re interested in what really happened, you might want to buy a non-fiction book. Let’s start The Dig true story, and how accurate The Dig is.
IS THE COUNT BASED ON A TRUE STORY?
Yes. The Dig tells the true story of English landowner Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan), who hired archaeologist Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) in 1937 to excavate the mysterious hills of her Sutton Hoo estate in southeastern Suffolk.
WHAT’S THE COUNT TRUE STORY? WHO WAS BASIL BROWN? WHAT IS SUTTON HOO?
Basil Brown was a self-taught archaeologist and astronomer who was only recently credited for his important role in the field. In 1939, two years after he was hired, Brown’s excavation team discovered a ship almost intact from the 7th century, complete with a room full of trinkets and treasures, such as masks, helmets and more.
The discovery was revolutionary in historians’ understanding of the early Anglo-Saxon people who lived in medieval Britain. The weapons discovered suggested the ship may have belonged to a great war leader, a lyre spoke to the people’s music and artistry, and a Scandinavian shield suggested diplomacy with other countries. The most famous discovery was the Sutton Hoo helmet, which was reconstructed by the British Museum and has become a key image of the Anglo-Saxon period.
HOW ACCURATE IS THE COUNT?
Most of the main characters in The Dig are based on real people, and the Sutton Hoo dig was absolutely real and significant. However, great liberties have been taken to dramatize the story. Mulligan plays the English landowner Edith Pretty; Fiennes plays archaeologist Basil Brown; and Lily James plays Peggy Piggott, an English archaeologist involved in the excavation whose cousin, John Preston, wrote the historical novel on which the film is based. Piggott’s first husband, Stuart Piggott (played by Ben Chaplin in the movie), was also a real-life archaeologist present at the dig, as was Charles Phillips (played by Ken Stott).
The only main character that is completely fictional is that of Johnny Flynn, aka Rory the photographer. The whirlwind romance between Peggy and Rory The Dig is where the movie passes into the “fictional” category of historical fiction. (It is true that the real Peggy Piggot and her husband Stuart Piggott broke up after the excavation and divorced in 1956.)
In an interview with Decider about his character in The DigFlynn said, ‘I like the character because he’s actually the only character in the story who isn’t a real person. John Preston, the novelist, and Moira Buffini, the screenwriter, created this fantastic device with Rory, where you get someone to allow you to see Peggy. You get to see Lily James’s character through his eyes and you make her realize that she is not happy in her marriage. “
Other moments were dramatized by Preston in his historical novel, including the collapse of Fiennes’ Brown and, as far as I know, the tension between Brown and The British Museum.
Responding to critics’ criticism of The Dig’s creative freedoms, Flynn added, “Shakespeare secured quite a few licenses Macbeth, Hamlet, and Troilus and Cressida. It’s a story in the end, and if you have to make stories work in the space of several months, you have to put people and events and characters together and try to translate that for people. “
Watch The Dig on Netflix