In 1961 Kempton Bunton (Jim Broadbent) steals Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. His plan is to spend the ransom money on TV licenses for old age pensioners. 

The Duke is a film whose currency is quintessential British character. Kempton Bunton is a working class Geordie who could talk the hind legs off of a donkey. Always standing up for the little man even at the detriment of his own life. His wife Dorothy (Helen Mirren) is the put upon matriarch who puts up with his antics whilst cleaning for a living. Whilst dotted around the periphery are those people Kempton helps or who he inspires to help him. Such as his upper class barrister Jeremy Hutchison (Matthew Goode) who shares a sandwich with him in his cell and the socialite (Anna Maxwell Martin) his wife works for who cheers him on at his trial. 

The film eschews the opportunity to show the heist as anything but mundane and gives short shrift to some late stage intrigue because its sole purpose is to focus on Broadbent’s admittedly fun turn as the working class Robin Hood with a heart of gold. 

The end result is a fairy mundane and dull affair that is destined for Sunday afternoon television.