The film was awarded 5 stars from The Guardian [5] and The Daily Telegraph [6] following its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival. [7] It was released in cinemas in the UK on 25 February 2022.

As with so many of cinema’s most successful practitioners, the South Africa-born British film-maker Roger Michell, who died last September aged 65, was not an “auteur” with a singular distinctive style. On the contrary, he was a versatile craftsman who could turn his hand to a range of genres with ease. From the classic Richard Curtis romcom Notting Hill to the American thriller Changing Lane s and the deliciously twisty Daphne du Maurier dark romance My Cousin Rachel, Michell instinctively understood the differing demands of each story he was telling. He adapted Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia for TV with great success, gave Anne Reid her finest role in the taboo-breaking, Kureishi-scripted drama The Mother, and directed a sorely underrated screen adaptation of Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love, the bravura opening movement of which has haunted me for years. Grater, Tom (29 October 2019). "Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren Art Heist Story 'The Duke' Greenlit At Pathé – AFM". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved 12 January 2020. The film was originally scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom by 20th Century Studios via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures on 6 November 2020, [18] but Pathé later delayed it to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [19] On 7 June 2021, it was announced that Pathé would release the film on 3 September 2021, after announcing a new distribution deal with Warner Bros. Pictures. [20] On 23 July, Pathé announced that the film release would be again delayed, this time to 25 February 2022. [21] Ramachdran, Naman (22 September 2020). "Sony Pictures Classics Nabs 'The Duke' For U.S., Latin America, Scandinavia From Pathe". Variety . Retrieved 22 September 2020. The Duke is a 2020 British comedy film directed by Roger Michell, with a screenplay by Richard Bean and Clive Coleman. Dealing with the 1961 theft of the Portrait of the Duke of Wellington, the film stars Jim Broadbent, Helen Mirren, Fionn Whitehead, Anna Maxwell Martin and Matthew Goode. It was Michell's penultimate film before his death on 22 September 2021.In 1961, Kempton Bunton, a 60-year old taxi driver, stole Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. 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 -- how and why he used the Duke to achieve that is a wonderfully uplifting tale.

The Duke review – art thief takes one for the common man". The Guardian. 2020-09-04 . Retrieved 2020-09-07. It was announced in October 2019 that a film about the 1961 theft was in development, with Broadbent as Bunton and Mirren as his wife and Roger Michell set to direct. [11] Fionn Whitehead was added the following month. [12] The film had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on 4 September 2020. [15] It was also selected to screen at the Telluride Film Festival in September 2020, prior to its cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic. [16] Shortly after, Sony Pictures Classics acquired the Latin America, Scandivanian and US distribution rights to the film. [17] Pathé's distribution arm will release the film in France and Switzerland.What happened next became the stuff of legend. Only 50 years later did the full story emerge--a startling revelation of how a good man set out to change the world and in so doing saved his son and his marriage. Filming began in November 2019, with Goode joining the cast. [13] Location shooting took place in Bradford and Leeds, and the production team also used Prime Studios in Leeds. [14] Release [ edit ] When the Goya goes awol, the authorities suspect highly organised international criminals, probably including “a trained commando” (the 1962 Bond film Dr No fancifully placed the painting in its villain’s lair). But when Kempton’s long-suffering wife, Dorothy (Helen Mirren), finds “a stolen masterpiece in me wardrobe!”, it appears that her husband has outdone himself in his quest to battle social injustice at large while driving his nearest and dearest to distraction at home.