Bank of Dave

Bank of Dave (2023) is a British comedy-drama based on a true story — watch it online on iFILM. Rory Kinnear stars as Dave Fishwick, with Joel Fry, Phoebe Dynevor, and Hugh Bonneville rounding out the cast.

Dave Fishwick sells minibuses in Burnley, a post-industrial town in northern England, and has made himself comfortable doing it. When local small businesses start folding because the big banks won't lend to them, Dave decides to open a community bank himself — one where the profits stay in the neighbourhood. The problem: no new banking licence had been issued in Britain for over a century. The financial establishment in London has no interest in making it easy.

Director Chris Foggin keeps the tone warm without papering over the real fight Dave picked. The actual Fishwick won his case, and the film earns its feel-good ending by showing the work it took to get there. It plays like a Northern English cousin of the underdog business dramas that populate the genre, but the Burnley locations and Kinnear's grounded performance give it more texture than most. Stream Bank of Dave (2023) online on iFILM.