Burnley takes centre stage for Dave’s new film

Burnley brushed aside the snow and rolled out the red carpet to host its second world film premiere.

The new Reel Cinema at Pioneer Place hosted the first showing of the new Netflix movie ‘Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger’.

The film is the second centred on Burnley businessman Dave Fishwick and his work to take on giants of the finance industry.

The first film, based on Dave’s life and how he battled to open the ‘Bank of Dave’ in Burnley, also had its premiere in the town.

The sequel is also based on a version of his real-life story. Two years after founding Britain’s very first community bank, Dave is back taking on a new opponent - payday loan companies.

The Burnley entrepreneur arrived at the premiere in his own minibus. The high-profile event was attended by members of the cast and production team.

They included Bond star Rory Kinnear, who once again plays Dave on the screen. Jo Hartley, who plays Dave’s wife Nicola, was also on the red carpet.

The original Dave movie hit the number one spot on Netflix’s most streamed movies when it was released on the platform in 2023.

Dave, who founded Burnley Savings and Loans after making his fortune selling minibuses, said: “I just feel we’ve been incredibly lucky. For Netflix to turn up not just once, but twice! My life has been changed forever, for the better.”

He added: “What’s really super about it is the local people are so, so involved. And the fact that Netflix has been amazing and chosen to have the premiere here.”

Large parts of the film were featured in Burnley, including scenes shot in the Talbot pub where Dave used to pop in for a pie and a pint and in his own home.

He said: “In my house there were something like 127 people. These huge trucks and wagons coming down the drive at 6am. And they genuinely want to make the best film.

“Everyone’s involved – including the community – because they want to be, and I think that’s awesome.”

Dave also explained how Netflix originally became involved. He said: “I've been making documentaries for both UK and US television. I got a phone call from Hollywood – like you do when you come from Burnley!

“It was a guy called Piers Ashworth, who was a writer on one of the first Mission Impossibles for Tom Cruise who is, if you squint, very similar to me!

“Piers had just had a big hit in the UK with a film called Fisherman’s Friends and was looking for another feel-good movie.

“One night he was having dinner with the voiceover guy of the original Bank of Dave documentary series and he told him about my story; how I left school at 16, became a builder's labourer and was now building my own high-street bank.

“So, Piers watched the programmes, he read my book and then he called me to say, ‘I want to make a story about your life’. I told him: ‘You had better get yourself down to Burnley, then, hadn’t you?' It was bonkers.”

The new film focuses on the work of Dave and his right-hand man David Henshaw to take on payday loan lenders. It’s a mission that takes Dave from Burnley to the US.

Dave said: “David H and I were getting letters, one after the other, from people being charged five and six thousand per cent APR, so they’d borrow £400 and it would turn into a few thousand in just a few months. It was unbelievable.

“I’d met people who’d tried to run away from home because of the terrible things that were happening to them through the payday loan industry.”

Co-producer Lauren Cox said the sequel stemmed from Dave wanting the story to be told. She said: “It still felt so relevant to today. People have to borrow money left, right and centre just to pay their electricity bills.”

Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger is out on Netflix on January 10.