Bernard Hill raids Bristol bank

“Say hello to my little friend!”

It’s an ordinary Tuesday lunchtime in central Bristol and there’s a moderately dramatic bank heist in progress. Customers scatter, looking suitably terrified. But nobody’s called the cops. That’s not simply because the rubber-masked raiders seem to be a tad long-in-the-tooth for this game. One of them even has a zimmer frame. But they’re also rather familiar. The Scarface-quoting one wielding an unconvincing ‘shotgun’ inside a plastic bag is Phil Davis, whose lengthy list of screen credits stretches from Quadrophenia to Vera Drake and beyond to the new TV adaptation of Poldark. Leading the raid is fellow veteran Bernard Hill, who was seen most recently in a very different role as the Duke of Norfolk in the BBC’s Wolf Hall.

This is, of course, no ordinary bank raid. It isn’t even an ordinary bank. The long-closed Lloyds building on Wine Street has, for a couple of days only, been converted into a convincingly bustling high street bank once again  – the Sodbury Alliance and Trust, no less – for the comedy heist flick Golden Years. After the scene is safely in the can, director John Miller gives a brief impromptu press conference in one of the labyrinthine building’s corridors. He’s a Henleaze lad – hence the name of another of the geriatric gang’s targets: The Henleaze Mutual Building Society – whose last feature was 2002’s Bristol-set student comedy Living in Hope, which gave future Bond girl Naomie Harris her first film role.

“I love Bristol,” he enthuses. “I’ve lived here for 25 years. It’s a great place to film because it’s so diverse. You can be in the city one minute and out into the countryside very quickly.”

Why, then, are so few feature films shot here? “That’s an odd one. I don’t really know why. I just found it a joy to film here. It’s built on ten hills, so you’ve always got an interesting vantage point. It’s quieter than trying to film in other major cities, and there’s a really good film unit here who help you out with all of that.”

John met TV presenter Nick Knowles while working on DIY SOS and together they came up with the idea for Golden Years. “I’d wanted to do something featuring older folk really struggling,” he explains. “The pensions crisis seemed like a great opportunity because of these people who’d been thrown on the scrapheap and forgotten about.”

The story follows a law-abiding retired couple who turn to a life of crime after losing their pensions. They plan to use the proceeds from a series of bank robberies to help out their equally impecunious codger pals and save their local bowls club from being turned into a supermarket. The distinguished senior cast is led by 83-year-old Born Free star Virginia McKenna, who’ll be back on cinema screens for the first time since 1998’s Sliding Doors. Bernard Hill plays her hubby. Joining them are Phil Davis, Una Stubbs, Simon Callow, Alun Armstrong and Sue Johnston. Bringing the average age down a notch is McKenna’s granddaughter, Lily Travers, who plays a vet.

The modestly-budgeted production used sets recently vacated by Sherlock at the Bottle Yard studios. Location filming took place at a number of bank buildings surrounding St Nicholas Market, including the former Bank of England on Broad Street. The film’s bowling club scenes were shot at The Ardagh Sports Club at Horfield Common, which is, somewhat ironically, facing its own closure threat.

Given that The Second Best Marigold Hotel recently topped the UK box office chart for three weeks, Golden Years couldn’t be more timely – though John is quick to stress that his film is no opportunistic cash-in on the grey pound. “We were writing this five-and-a-half years ago, before all that started to happen. I’ve always found older characters more interesting because they’ve lived their lives, they’ve got these stories to tell. And I think people are interested in those stories. The grey pound means there’s a big market out there. But I think this one will appeal to everyone, because everyone wants to see pensioners robbing banks.”