The Dig - A Review of Dirt and Soap

Obviously I came to Netflix's new offering "The Dig" with every intention of being delighted, or at a minimum, diverted.  Getting anything new in the way of entertainment is a plus as we slog towards the one year anniversary of Covid restrictions.  And to get something dealing with British Archaeology is a rare treat.  I also consider Ralph Fiennes to be a superb actor.

So, how'd it all play out?

It was an interesting mixture of Dirt and Soap.  

The first half of the movie was actually about archaeology.  You learn some things about burial mounds, early grave robbers and about the small, scholarly and rather snooty community of people who pottered about digging up the past in the early 20th century.  It took a few liberties...cutting a few corners here and there and I don't mean the nice clean sharp corners of Basil Brown's trenches.  It was implied that the time frame was only a few high pressure weeks just before the outbreak of the Second World War.  Actually it was over two excavation seasons, 1938 and 1939.  The scene where a trench caves in on Brown was harrowing but could not have happened with that trench.  Nor for that matter would he be alive after having been buried for long enough to summon the entire household staff to help dig him out.

But they made it look good.  I enjoyed seeing the open, almost lonely English countryside.  And when Basil rode to the site on his bicycle it brought back happy memories of walking to Vindolanda on similar mornings of mist and promise.  Oh, they could have done a few little things for the benefit of archaeology fans, who have of course embraced this en masse.  The burial mounds were obviously constructed for the production, no doubt by just having an earth mover pile up dirt and landscapers lay sod.  There was no stratigraphy in the trenches, just uniform, boring topsoil.  

The people who make these programs really should consult me.  Here, free of charge is an embellishment that would cost about 10 pounds in expense and 15 seconds of screen time.

SCRIPT: - Edith runs her elegantly manicured nails over the patterned layers of soil in the excavation face.  A shard of pottery falls away.  Holding it in her hand she pauses -  "It speaks to us Mr. Brown.  It is the distant voice of those who have left us" - Brief flashback to her deceased husband.  She closes her hand over the shard and holds it to her chest, coughing in a ladylike fashion -.

The second half of the production is all about "Relationships".  OK, that's interesting enough and if you stuck to straight up digging you'd have no audience.  Heck, even Time Team left the trench and went off in silly directions to keep people interested in the excavations.  Dressing up in Medieval robes and such like.  The change in focus to the people over the dig works because you've come to care about them.  That's no easy accomplishment over a small amount of preceding screen time.

But here they took many liberties, and my UK friends in the know are in a bit of a lather over some of them.  Peggy Piggott for instance is depicted as a slightly ditzy newlywed who looked about 20 years old and was asked along on the dig primarily because she was so petite that her footsteps on delicate archaeology would be less damaging.  In fact she was 27, had been married for three years already and was accomplished as both an excavator and a scholar by the time she came to the Sutton Hoo site.  Gracious, she had already directed an excavation in 1937.  In "The Dig" she dumps her obviously gay husband in favor of a dashing young RAF man.  In reality she stayed married until 1956.  

But I give credit and ratings stars where they are earned.  By the time the archaeology became secondary you actually did care about the characters.  Lady Edith was made to subtly age reflecting her failing health.  Her regret over her dead husband and her soon to be orphaned son were poignant.  Points to the makeup department also for Basil Brown.  I've never seen the ingrained "permadirt" of a serious excavator accurately depicted before!  And it certainly added to the weary, care worn, under appreciated look that defined him.  The great gulf between educated "toffs" and hard working, lower class workers may not be obvious to casual American audiences but could not be missed when watching these characters interact.

To my great surprise there was essentially no depiction of the Sutton Hoo treasures.  The gold is briefly glimpsed. There was a coin.  The famous Sutton Hoo helmet might have been in that batch of corroded metal that was sent off to the lab in an off hand way.

If I were script doctor I'd have changed the ending slightly.  Rather than long, long views of the excavation site as the credits roll I'd have had soft focus views of finds on display in the British Museum at a later date.  I think even those who came for Soap instead of Dirt would have appreciated that.  And for those of us who have our priorities in reverse order?  Well even I would have liked some follow up on the main and secondary characters.  Did the dashing RAF recruit fall in battle?  ( As he was a fictional element to the story the answer is up to the writers!) Did Peggy Piggotte find professional success and romantic bliss?  ( Sounds like Yes and No  respectively).

Kudos Netflix, and a job well done by the entire cast.  The Dig is set in the same interbellum Downton Abbey period that has been documented in such detail, yet it shows a world unfamiliar to most.  And in the modern era when aerial photography and high tech ground penetrating radar makes Wonderous Surprise less common, it depicts a world that in its own way has receded into the past.