Bank of Dave tells a true underdog story: a self-made businessman from a working-class background in Burnley who set out to build a community bank for people the big financial institutions had stopped serving.
What is Bank of Dave about?
Based on the real experiences of Dave Fishwick, Bank of Dave follows a van-rental entrepreneur who decides his hometown deserves a proper local bank, one that lends to small businesses and everyday people rather than shutting them out. What follows is a mix of comedy and drama as Dave squares off against distant regulators and skeptical bureaucrats who see a working-class outsider trying to enter a world built to keep people like him on the margins. Joel Fry plays a young London lawyer sent north to help with the paperwork, and his fish-out-of-water perspective becomes a way into Dave's world and his cause. The film balances broad, warm comedy with a genuine sense of stakes, following the practical and emotional cost of trying to change a system from outside it.
About the cast
Joel Fry and Rory Kinnear lead an ensemble that also includes Phoebe Dynevor, Jo Hartley, Hugh Bonneville, and Paul Kaye, with the cast splitting time between the film's London institutions and its Burnley community. The performances lean into gentle comic rhythm without losing sight of the real people and real town the story is rooted in.
Context & significance
A 2023 British production directed by Chris Foggin, Bank of Dave sits in a familiar British tradition of true-story comedy-dramas about ordinary people taking on institutions far larger than themselves. Its Burnley setting and focus on regional, working-class life give the film a specific texture that distinguishes it from more London-centric versions of the same underdog formula.
Watching Bank of Dave on Ktime
Bank of Dave is available on K-Time with Persian dubbing, letting Farsi-speaking viewers follow Dave's story in their own language, though Persian subtitles are not currently offered for this title. A free K-Time account and login are required to watch, and the platform is built around a Farsi-first streaming experience for the Iranian diaspora; this page itself is free to read without signing in.