“Peggy was not an inexperienced sweet young thing who was chosen because she was small and petite,” he said. Jeffers says, in fact, that it is “staggeringly slanderous.” Problem is, none of that is historically correct. In The Dig, this is portrayed as a May-September relationship between the young, fresh-out-of-grad school Peggy and the older, closeted gay man Stuart. Rory was also the point of a love triangle between real life archeologists Stuart Piggott and his wife Peggy. But instead of giving them their due, these two groundbreaking women were replaced by the fictional hunk-a-hunk-a-burning love, Rory.” “Their names were Mercie Lack and Barbara Wagstaff. Yes, two women. And it’s believed that they produced the first color photographs of an archaeological excavation in England, and thus they made history with their work.

“We know who the Sutton Hoo photographers were,” observed Jeffers. The biggest issues, he said, surrounded the character of Edith’s cousin and excavation photographer Rory (Johnny Flynn), a wholly fictional creation who not only introduced unnecessary issues with several of the real life people, but also squeezed two pioneers out of their place in the spotlight. However, he went on to list a litany of liberties the film took, including some that went completely contrary to recorded events. “I wanted references to the rain, the shadow of war, the rescue nature of the dig, the problem of rabbits, how class issues affected the dig, and many other things. And in the first 20 minutes, the film ticked most of the boxes I was looking for.” “Sitting down to watch The Dig, I had a list of things that I wanted to see in the film,” he said.

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