Heritage Playhouse: MOVIE SHOWING:: The Duke

UK, 2020, 95 min, Biography, Comedy, Crime,
Director: Roger Mitchell

Starring: Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren

In 1961, Kempton Bunton, a retired bus driver from Newcastle, snuck into London’s National Gallery and stole Francisco Goya’s famous portrait of the Duke of Wellington.

It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery’s history. Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government invested more in care for the elderly — he had long campaigned for pensioners to receive free television. What happened next became the stuff of legend. Only 50 years later did the full story emerge — Kempton had spun a web of lies. The only truth was that he was a good man, determined to change the world and save his marriage.