Does The Bank of Dave Actually… Exist?
Well, no, not really.
It’s true that Dave Fishwick, a Burnley man who had built his business empire selling vans and minibuses, set up Burnley Savings and Loans – a company whose slogan is ‘Bank on Dave!’ – back in 2011, after he saw how difficult local people were finding it to get a loan from High Street banks. It’s also true that he claims he had a lot of pushback from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) who apparently really did demand he raise several million pounds in security as part of his application to become a real bank, as the film shows.
But that money was never raised, and the company isn’t actually a bank (technically it’s an ‘independent lending company’) and is still in the process of trying to get its banking licence as The Bank of Dave.
The good news is that all the work we see Fishwick aiming for in Bank of Dave – lending to local people who struggle to get a loan elsewhere, giving decent interest rates on savings, donating profits to charity – is real.
Is Dreamy Lawyer Hugh (Joel Fry) Real?
Kinnear is joined in Bank of Dave by his fellow Our Flag Means Death cast member Joel Fry as hotshot London solicitor Hugh, who reluctantly takes on the job of representing Fishwick as he tries to set up the Bank of Dave.
After a shaky start in Burnley, he grows to love the Fishwick family, the Bank of Dave dream and the town itself, even stumping up £1 million of his own money to help the bank achieve its funding goals. He also grows ever closer to Alexandra (Phoebe Dynevor, Bridgerton), an NHS doctor and Fishwick’s niece.