As part of the celebrations for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

in London, the BBC produced the film ''Bert and Dickie'' (also called ''Going For Gold: The '48 Games''), depicting

Dickie Burnell Richard Desborough Burnell (26 July 1917 – 29 January 1995) was an English Rowing (sport), rower who won a gold medal at the 1948 Olympics alongside Bert Bushnell in the sculling, double sculls. He and his father Charles Burnell, Charles are ...

and

Bert Bushnell Bertram Harold Thomas Bushnell (3 September 1921 – 10 January 2010) was a British rower who competed in the 1948 Summer Olympics and won the gold medal alongside Dickie Burnell in the double sculls, having had hopes to compete in the singl ...

's achievement at the 1948 Games. The drama was written by

William Ivory William (Billy) Ivory (born 1964) is a British screenwriter, playwright and actor. He is a three-time BAFTA nominee. Early life and career Ivory was born in Southwell, Nottinghamshire and has set many of his works in Nottingham. He was a pupil ...

and directed by David Blair.

Plot

Thrown together just five weeks before the final of the 1948 London Olympics, Bert Bushnell and Dickie Burnell row to victory in the double sculls.

Cast

* Sam Hoare as

Matt Smith Matthew Robert Smith (born 28 October 1982) is an English actor. He is known for playing the Eleventh Doctor in the BBC science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'' (2010–2013), Prince Philip in Netflix's historical series ''The Crown ( ...

Geoffrey Palmer Geoffrey Palmer may refer to: Politicians *Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 1st Baronet (1598–1670), English lawyer and politician *Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 3rd Baronet (1655–1732), English politician, member of parliament (MP) for Leicestershire *Geoffrey Pal ...

Charles Burnell Charles Desborough 'Don' Burnell, (13 January 1876 – 3 October 1969) was a British rower who competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics. Biography Burnell was born at Beckenham, then in Kent. He was educated at Eton College and Magdalen Coll ...

James Frain James Frain is an English actor. His best known television roles include Thomas Cromwell in the Showtime/CBC historical drama ''The Tudors'' (2007–2009), Franklin Mott in the HBO drama ''True Blood'' (2010), Warwick the Kingmaker in the BB ...

as Jack Beresford *

Douglas Hodge Douglas William Hodge (born 25 February 1960) is an English actor, director and musician. He has had an extensive career in theatre, as well as film and television where he has appeared in ''Robin Hood'' (2010), '' Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Retu ...

as John Bushnell *

Anastasia Hille Anastasia Hille (born 1965) is an English film, television and theatre actress and ceramicist. Early life Born in Lambeth, London, her mother was Finnish. Hille was a student at London's Drama Centre and won second prize at the Ian Charleson ...

as Lena Bushnell *

Alexandra Moen Alexandra Moen (born 1978) is an Italian-born English actress, known for her roles as Emily James in the drama series '' Hotel Babylon'', Tamsin in the drama series '' Tripping Over'', and Lucy Saxon in the science fiction series ''Doctor Who''. ...

as Rosalind Burnell

Reception

Paddy Shennan of the Liverpool Echo said Bert and Dickie is "thoroughly absorbing and uplifting" and "a winning drama about a winning team". James Watson of The Telegraph highlighted the performances of Douglas Hodge and Geoffrey Palmer: "Douglas Hodge brilliantly conveyed John Bushnell’s almost embarrassed desperation for Bert to succeed where he’d failed. Playing Charles Burnell, Geoffrey Palmer was, as ever, hard to beat for lugubrious gruffness"' and concluded his review with "anybody whose eyes didn’t join Bushnell Snr’s in filling with tears is stronger than me."

Awards and nominations

The following is a table listing the awards and nominations received by Bert and Dickie:

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, id=2075121, title=Bert & Dickie
BBC page for Bert and Dickie
1948 Summer Olympics British biographical dictionaries 2012 biographical drama films 2012 films British sports drama films Films set in England Films about the 1948 Summer Olympics Sports films based on actual events 2010s sports drama films 2012 television films Films directed by David Blair (director) 2010s English-language films 2010s British films British drama television films English-language biographical drama films English-language sports drama films