I turned down Strictly to focus on helping people – now I’m a Netflix star reveals real-life Bank of Dave businessman
DAVE FISHWICK’s new film is the fastest commissioned sequel in Netflix history thanks to the phenomenal success of his 2023 debut movie on the streamer.
Bank Of Dave: The Loan Ranger, which drops today, charts the next round of real-life battles of crusading business buff.
But despite his spiralling fame off the back of his movies and Channel 4 TV series, Lancashire-born Dave is one of the most down-to-earth celebs I’ve ever met.
He tells me: “I’ll have been chatting with someone really famous, or I’ll have spent a day with Netflix — and my wife Nicky grounds me immediately.
“I walk through the door and she’ll say, ‘Never mind all that nonsense. Is it corned beef or cottage pie for your tea?’ It brings me back down to earth.”
Laughing, he adds: “When I was at the Baftas, they brought round the champagne.
“I’ve been nominated three times and won two, so I know what it’s all about at those things.
‘Helping people’
“The first time I went, I asked them, ‘Don’t you have any Carling or Foster’s going?’ And they kindly went and found a dusty old bottle of Grolsch.
“I’m the first person in history to walk into the Baftas with a lager in my champagne glass.”
And if you don’t already know Dave, you soon will.
My insiders tell me he is nailed on for Strictly this autumn, after he was forced to pull out of last year’s show because of charity commitments, including the endless free talks he gives in schools to help inspire the next generation.
On top of this, he has spent years on the hit list for I’m A Celebrity and other primetime shows.
“I was offered Dragons’ Den three times but it just wasn’t for me,” Dave explains. “And the BBC came to me about Top Gear but ended up going to Chris Evans.
“I wanted to focus on my shows and what was important to me, and that is helping people.”
His first Netflix film, which went straight to No1, and the follow-up are both biographical, and chart how Dave — played by Rory Kinnear — has helped people financially.
He left school with no qualifications and was, as he puts it, “p*** poor” growing up.
Despite not having a gilded start in life, Dave was a born entrepreneur and began buying cars to do up and sell on — which has led to him now running multiple multi-million-pound businesses in both the UK and US.
His entrepreneurial spirit also saw him creating the UK’s first high street bank in 120 years, Burnley Savings and Loans — aka Bank Of Dave — which was the premise of the first movie.
To date, the bank has lent more than £27million to people in the UK.
Dave says: “I know what it’s like to be so poor there is no food on the table.
“When you know what it’s like to have that life, and then to have money, you use that knowledge to help as many other people as people. Especially up North.”
The Loan Ranger focuses on Dave’s real-life fight to help close down payday loan company Wonga.
In the film, Dave is seen recruiting an American journalist and a local Citizens Advice counsellor to try to bring down the industry of cruel, corporate sharks after he learns about them ripping off locals.
Dave says: “Piers Ashworth, the scriptwriter for Tom Cruise‘s Mission: Impossible got involved and I am so proud of the final edit.
“I play three parts. One is an American/Italian baddie. I was proper Don Corleone.”
After seeing the film earlier this week, I can promise it is a must-watch.
It will make you cry, laugh and become incredibly angry when you see people being ripped off.
As we part, Dave imparts some wisdom and tells me: “If we can get to kids early enough we can make a difference.
“A lot of people feel like if they don’t get qualifications they’re left behind. But there is another way.
“Hard work will put you where luck will find you.”
Madge a geisha goddess
MADONNA dresses up as a geisha as she follows her own advice and takes a Holiday.
The singer posed in a lavender kimono and wore bright red lipstick alongside another woman in traditional dress while enjoying some downtime in Japan.
She wrote on Instagram: “Thank you, Japan, for the most magical and inspiring experience with the ones I love! A beautiful way to start the new year!”
She flew there with her whole family and her Jamaican ex-footballer boyfriend Akeem Morris – and sparked rumours he had popped the question by showing off a diamond ring, although I’m informed that she’s not engaged.
Given she said she admitted regretting her two marriages, that might be for the best.
NEW releases dried up in December but Ellie Goulding is getting this year off to a belting start with her new tune Hypnotized.
Out today, it is a collaboration with US DJ Anyma, who she recently joined him for his residency at The Sphere in Las Vegas where they performed it live for the first time, right.
Jade Thirlwall is also back with her confident tune It Girl, while The Beatles legend Ringo Starr drops his album Look Up today.
LILY ALLEN has revealed she is taking a break for her mental health following her split from husband David Harbour.
The singer has admitted she has been “spiralling” for months and is now taking a break from Miss Me, her podcast with Miquita Oliver, in order to recover.
Speaking to listeners, she said: “I’m finding it hard to be interested in anything.
“I’ve been spiraling and spiraling and it’s got out of control.
“I’m going away next week. You’re not going to hear me for a few weeks.
“I do want to reassure people that I’m going to drug rehab. I’ve not relapsed.”
Lily, who wed David in 2020 but split before Christmas, went on to say she will be uncontactable during her break.
She added: “I really don’t like my phone. This is the one thing I’m excited about where I’m going the next few weeks is I’m not allowed my phone.”
IT’S MUSIC EDUCATION
DESPITE his enormous fame and fortune, Ed Sheeran has not forgotten where he came from.
Yesterday, the Shape Of You singer launched the Ed Sheeran Foundation – a nationwide initiative aimed at providing inclusive, high-quality music education in schools across the country.
“Music education shaped who I am,” Ed told me in an exclusive catch-up.
“I went to Thomas Mills High School, a state school, and it had a brilliant music teacher called Mr Hanley who would say ‘If you are interested in music, I’m going to encourage your interests.’
“I had the confidence to feel that I could write a song and go and perform it on stage because of him.”
Ed continues: “I launched the foundation because he told me about the terrible state that state school education was in and that his music department was chronically underfunded.
“There are also organisations that do out-of-school music clubs that are getting shut down.
“The music industry contributes £7.6billion to the UK economy, but we risk losing our UK talent.
“There’s an opportunity for this government to make a real difference and action real change in music education.”
Upon its launch, Ed’s foundation has already helped support 18 grassroots music organisations and state-school music departments – which has directly helped 12,000 children and young people.
As well as improving access to instruments, Ed’s Foundation has helped create performance opportunities and opened pathways into the music industry.
In Coventry, the foundation is partnering with Coventry Alternative Provision Academy and Coventry Music on creating a studio space.
The academy’s headteacher Glenn Mellor praised Ed, saying: “Music is so important for our young people.
“Having this studio reaches them in a way that will inspire them to believe they can go further with their ambitions and future careers.”
It’s only going to get bigger and better from here.
Bravo, Ed. We’re right behind you.
GRIMMY’S MORNING GLORY
HAVING quit the Radio 1 Breakfast Show seven years ago to finally get a lie-in, it’s time for Nick Grimshaw to dig out his alarm clock again.
He has been announced as the new host of the BBC’s 6 Music Breakfast Show, replacing Lauren Laverne, who is moving to mid-mornings.
It comes after he stood in for her last year as she took a break while battling cancer.
Lauren said: “I had a really tough 2024 and worried at times that I wouldn’t be able to return to the station I love so much.
“It has been a huge honour to host the Breakfast Show for six wonderful years, but it is time to pass the baton on, and to set my alarm later.”
Nick added: “6 Music is a precious place, I’m honoured to be asked to work there and can’t wait to continue supplying the best new music from the world’s most interesting artists.”