Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger has arrived on Netflix to tell another story from Dave Fishwick’s real life.
The self-made millionaire fought to set up a community bank to help the people of Burnley, a story that was told in Netflix’s British hit Bank of Dave. Now, the sequel covers Dave’s battle against payday loan companies.
It sees Dave (played by Rory Kinnear in both movies) recruit American journalist Jessica (Chrissy Metz) and local Citizen’s Advice counsellor Oliver (Amit Shah) to fight to get the UK government to regulate the payday loan industry.
As the opening title card tells us, Bank of Dave 2 is “based on a true(ish) story” like the first movie, but how accurate is Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger to the real-life story of Dave Fishwick?
Spoilers follow for the movie if you haven’t seen it yet.
Bank of Dave 2 true story explained
Like the first movie, it’s fair to say a lot of creative licence has been used to tell the story of Dave Fishwick’s crusade against the payday loan companies.
What’s true is that, back in 2014, Dave did campaign against the payday loan companies – at the time, it was specifically Wonga – after people kept coming to Burnley Savings and Loans (aka the ‘Bank of Dave’) asking for help to pay back the loans.
As we see in the movie, Dave and his chief financial officer David Henshaw decided to take on some of the payday loans. They set their customers a more affordable loan rate and tried to pay the loans themselves.
They found it near-impossible to do so, as highlighted in 2014 documentary Dave: Loan Ranger (which is coming to Netflix on January 15). Eventually, Dave’s campaigning was part of what led to the UK government introducing regulations on the payday loan industry.
As the final title card of the sequel states, 50 of the biggest payday loan companies have “gone bust or voluntarily shut up shop”. Among them was Wonga, who Dave specifically campaigned against.
However, if you’re looking for QuickDough or Snapcash Advance – the two companies mentioned in Bank of Dave 2 – among those that shut down, you won’t find them as they’re both fictional.
As is Carlo Mancini (Rob Delaney) who makes it a personal mission to stop Dave as he’s the one running the companies in the movie.
It also won’t be a surprise to learn that the third act of the movie is also fictional, where Dave heads to the US to serve Carlo with an extradition order, leading to Dave’s life being in danger from Carlo’s henchmen.
Luckily for Dave (in the movie), Def Leppard are on hand to smuggle him back to the UK on their private jet. In case it needs outlining, this also didn’t happen in real life.
However, talking to RadioTimes.com, the real Dave did confirm that he went to the US to go after the payday loan companies and hinted at some consequences (whether they were the same as the movie remains to be seen).
“The origination of pay-day loans is all in America. So we went after them in America for real. And [then] they came after me back. They really tried some dirty tricks and… it’s very similar to the movie,” he explained.
“It was very important that we put a lot of what really happened. We went after the pay-day loans, and we went knocking on the doors where we thought the addresses were, because I tried to pay them back what customers owed to them, and they just wouldn’t take my calls so I went after them.
“So me and David H went down to London, buzzing on all the doors. And they were just cupboards with PO boxes on them that related to America. So in the end, I had to go to America!”
Another fact is that Def Leppard really did stop by Dave’s local pub, The Talbot, to film the final scene of the movie where they lead the crowd in a sing-song. The real-life Dave – wearing a wig – can be spotted in the corner of the pub along with his wife Nicola.
It’s one of three cameos he makes in the movie as you can also see him among the crowd at the Burnley football game and as one of Carlo’s henchman, which sees him sport a goatee beard.
Dave Fishwick truly is a man of many talents.
Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger is available to watch now on Netflix.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
