Dave Fishwick on his 2025, his 2026, his love of Lancashire & whether he would do The Traitors

Nelson born Dave Fishwick is one of the county’s best known businessmen: after building a successful minibus sales company, he set up his own high street bank in 2011, after noticing big banks had stopped lending his customer’s money in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

His incredible story was the topic of a 2023 Netlix film, ‘Bank of Dave’, whilst his further exploits were the focus of a sequel which only came out in 2025, ‘Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger’.

Last year turned out to be an especially busy time for the father of two as a new film also came with the news of an upcoming musical, also all about his life!

As 2025 drew to an end, Dave sat down for a chat with us in which we of course looked at the year gone by and the year ahead but we also looked at Dave’s wider career - including whether he would ever do any of those celebrity shows - as well as his love for Lancashire.

See what he had to say next...

2025 was quite a busy year for you- Bank of Dave 2 came out - can I ask you how you found that reception?

“Well, we're ever so lucky, each year seems to get busier. You know, as you get older, they're supposed to get a bit calmer, but every year so far seems to get a bit busier. So the first movie, let's jump to that first, that became Netflix's most successful British independent movie of all time. It hit number one within a week. It then went around the world, it hit Australia, New Zealand, number one, and then within four days, it were top 10 in America. Now a quick story is when I originally heard they wanted to make a movie about my life, which is bonkers to start with, a man called Piers Ashworth called me from Hollywood, and said ‘Dave, I've watched your documentaries, I've watched your TV shows. I've read your books and read about you in the newspapers, and we'd like to make a movie about your life’ so I said, ‘well, you better get yourself to Burnley then’ and he did! He turned up and we had a chat, and he said, Dave ‘who would you like to play you in the movie?’ And it's a true story this, I found out from Piers that he writes the scripts for Mission Impossible for Tom Cruise so I said ‘Well, you know Tom and I look very similar, perhaps he could play me? I know Mrs. F would be very pleased with that.’ And he pulled his phone out, he opened it, pressed T and up come Tom Cruise's number. I thought that's pretty cool having Tom Cruise in your friends and family number. He then said ‘Just before I have a word with Tom, I think you're going to look too much like Tom so let's get Rory Kinnear’. And obviously Rory looks more like me than I do, and he was great fun. Rory came up to the house, he knocked on the door and said ‘Dave, Meet Dave’ and I knew he would do a wonderful job, and he did. But moving back to the story, when the first movie got to number six on Netflix in America, Tom Cruise's film was at number seven so it's a good job we didn't get Tom! So that was the first movie. The second one that came out in January this year was the fastest commissioned sequel in Netflix’s history and it also become the most successful British independent sequel in Netflix's history. So that hit number one in less than 24 hours in Britain. It then went around the world, top 10 in Africa and Australia, New Zealand, and it's due to go to America later this year so let's just see if it does the same. If we could beat Tom again, that'd be pretty cool.”

So you've been happy with how it has been received so far?

“The public has been wonderful, and one of the things that is really important for me is I wanted to have the premieres in Lancashire, because not everybody can afford to go to Leicester Square, and especially as people are having tough times now. So the first movie premiered in the old cinema at Burnley, and the second one premiered in the new cinema at Burnley. Netflix flew in from all over the world in private jets into Manchester to come to the premier in Burnley the first time and I think everybody thought ‘what are we doing?’ because it was the first ever Netflix premier outside London. Then it was such a wonderful story, so many people turned up, that it ended up getting in the news -even the World News picked up on it so when we asked if we could premiere again in Burnley, they said ‘yeah, fantastic’. It's a bit of a theme running through so it's been accepted by people up in the north wonderfully. The letters and cards we receive, we're so, so grateful, and we're, really, really lucky because, you know, we were up there in the top 10 with $300 million movies, and we only got knocked off the top spot by the unknown actress, Cameron Diaz, with a $250 million new movie. So yeah we were very, very lucky, to have two number ones is just unheard of.”

If we flash forward a few more months, you announced that there's going to be a Bank of David musical too so how do you feel about your story getting told in a musical format?

“It's taken two years to get it to stage. It's a big job is a musical. It's cost 2 million pounds so far. There's been 57 people working on it for two years, and I've now seen it front to back with my wife, Nicky. We've been to the Leicester Curve to watch the rehearsals, and that has been so exciting. The people that's involved in that is this guy called Nikolai Foster who made Kinky Boots, obviously one of the very big musicals,. and he's also involved in the Cher musical, the new Great British Bake Off musical, the Tina Turner one. There's so many he's done, he's just huge in the musical world and he flew in, especially from Japan, to the press day. And then Pippa Cleary, and Rob Madge, they wrote the songs, and they wrote the award-winning My Son's a Queer (But What Can You Do?) so it's got some really, really good foundations for it to sit on. It's obviously very, very involved with Netflix as well, it's based on the first Netflix movie. They've wrote lots and lots of songs about Lancashire, which is really cool.

“I mean, it's one thing, watching somebody play you in a movie, you know, it's quite strange watching myself on television do things, but to watch somebody play you in a musical, that's another level. Things are getting a little bit bonkers now, but great fun. So we're really excited about that. That world premiere launches on the second of May. It'll sit up in the Lowry for a few weeks, and then it goes to Leicester Curve, and then it'll go to some other theatres across the UK, and then down to the West End, and it'll sit in the West End for a few years, and hopefully across to Broadway.”

Can we expect it to come to Lancashire?

“Well, I'm hoping. I mean, to be honest, I wanted it to premiere here in the North, and it is doing in Manchester/Salford and that's really important to me, because not everybody can afford to go to the West End. You know, it's an expensive weekend out to the West End, that's for sure. So it were really important for me, for it to world premiere in the north, just like the movies… I'm not allowed to release them just yet but I do know some of the other places it's going. So if the theatre is big enough, it will go, you know, it's a multi thousand people musical. It's a very, very big show. I mean, just to give you an idea, there's been 251 actresses that have applied for the job of Nicky, Mrs. F… So there's a lot of interest in it already, even from the world of showbiz.”

Did you have any involvement in writing the musical and could we expect to see you on any of the stages?

“There's always a chance of me getting up and saying a few words. I'd especially love to say thank you to people so at some point, you know so, I will get up and say a few words. But the musical is very much based on the first movie and I was very pleased with the first movie. These people that make musicals are very, very committed. They are very, very good at what they do and they don't need a lad from Burnley who sells busses to stick his nose in, so I try and keep out enough, but if there was something I didn't like, I would have already said. I have some sort of editorial control, obviously, because I'm Dave, and that's what it's about! But they have been so wonderful to work with and they've asked me lots and lots of things- as Netflix are, Netflix are amazing to work with. You know, they ask you if you're happy with a scene, ask you if you're happy with how it's going.

“I mean, I'm working from home today and this kitchen here is where they put a train track through my house to make the movie, and it were a massive train track for the actual cameras to sit on. The cameras were huge and it was just unbelievable. You'll be upstairs at half five in the morning, 127 people descend onto your house. There's wagons and trucks and things like a circus and in every part of the house there's just people and cameras and equipment, and it really is a very, very well run operation. The musical is exactly the same. The people really know what they're doing, and it's just a pleasure to go and watch them perform the songs. You know, there's a few of them that are quite moving. There's one about mY dad, and, yeah, it's really nice.”

If you look back at 2025 so far, what has been the highlight?

“That's a really good question because I've been doing a lot of television this year about scams and about things that are affecting people, and I've really enjoyed working with the police going after the loan sharks… I'm very lucky to be asked to go along to make TV that makes a difference to people's lives. That's definitely something I've got more and more involved in. I mean, I've been in television for 15 years now, and it started with the ‘Bank of Dave’. I did ‘Bank of Dave’ one, two and three for Britain and then I did ‘Bank of Dave’ one, two and three and four for America, which most people don't know about. So we did about what the banks were doing in America and what the banks were doing here. That took two and a half years in total and then I went on to make a program called ‘Secret Millions’, where I raised 2 million pounds to help disadvantaged kids get into jobs by creating pop up job centers across the UK. I really enjoyed that and then I went on to make a series called ‘The Lone Ranger’, where I took on the payday loan industry, and I helped get Wonga shot down, and that's what the second movie was based on. Then from that, I made a series about the cost of living, and I went around the world looking at why things cost so much for Channel 4. Then I made a consumer series about helping people get the best deals and a series for Channel 4, that then went on to Amazon Prime, which was called ‘Can Property Pay Your Wages’ for people who wanted to get onto a property ladder.

“After that, I did a seven part series for Channel 4 that I really enjoyed making, but I didn't like the title. I were helping people start a business and we got them all into profit, it took seven months to make them all successful but then they called it ‘Get Rich Quick’ and I didn't like that, because it wasn't get rich quick, it was start a business, you know. Then from that, I made a seven part consumer series with Kym Marsh and Matt Allwright for BBC about helping people get the best deals. That got me into live television so from there, I started working with CNN, CNBC, Good Morning Britain. ITV News, BBC One Breakfast, This Morning, Robert Peston, BBCPpolitics. So I've done lots and lots of television now and I enjoy that, especially making television that makes a difference. We've been very lucky over the years. We've been nominated for three BAFTAs. We've won two. The third one we missed out. You know, I took on the world's banks and Paul Hollywood makes cupcakes, and he won but I'm not bitter. And then I won a Royal Television Society Award, and then six broadcast awards. And then with the first movie we got best feature film of 2023 for the National Film Awards. In between the films, I was named the ambassador for United States of America's community banks last year, so there’s 6000 of them, $6 trillion worth of assets between them. They are a wonderful group of people that I stand at the front of and help them with lots of different things. I also have six businesses, the biggest of which is an investment company in America. They're all built from scratch, and they range, from selling mini busses to leasing vehicles to buying and selling property, renting property, the investment company, the Bank of Dave, obviously, and I've got the media company now where I speak all over the world about all sorts of things.”

And can I ask you to look at the year and say what your biggest learning curve was?

“That's a good question. What's the learning curve? I mean, I'm learning every day, and you know, as I get older, I seem to be learning a bit more. I think one of the things that I'm getting to grips with is AI, artificial intelligence, that is a super, super big part of what I'm looking at with scams. There's a lot of people being scammed with AI, and I've got a guy working with me now at the Bank of Dave who's a genius with AI, and we're looking at as many ways as we possibly can to protect as many people as possible. So I think the biggest thing I'm learning about now is how technology and how AI is really, really going to take over the next few years. I think that's going to be a really big thing. We'll try and do as much as we can to educate as many people as we can about the scams that can be made with that. I mean, I went after the loan sharks with ITV news and across social media that did 21 million views so it's a subject people are very concerned about. We also went after phone theives and data thieves. So they steal your phone, and they take the data out of it, and then they do all sorts of things with that, try and get money off people, you know, and that's becoming a really big thing, and that's another thing I'm probably learning the most about.”

Aside from tackling AI and the musical, is there anything else in the pipeline for you next year?

“I'm looking at doing a new series. Can't say too much about it, but I can say I'm looking at a new TV series so that's exciting. I've obviously got the musical, which is going to take a part of the year up where I'll be publicizing it across the country, and I'll be doing some more live television. To be honest, I get offered a lot of things. You know, I've been offered Dragons Den three times. I get offered a lot of programs, and I turn most of it down because I'm not sure how that's going to make a difference to other people's lives. I'd like to keep moving forward, looking for things where it's going to make the most difference. When I get offered a project, if I think it's going to make a huge difference to a lot of people, then I will have a go. I like to use the profile to try and get things changed that need change, real change. I work with very clever people like yourself in the media world, who genuinely want to make a difference. I've also got a lot of people in politics who I've got connections with now, and a lot of people in all sorts of walks of life that can really, really make a difference. When people write to me, which they do a lot at the Bank of Dave, and they say, you know ‘this is a real problem, Dave’, then sometimes we can go and make a difference to that and I like that. The Bank of Dave now has lent out over 40 million pounds to 1000s of people and businesses across the UK. We're also doing mortgages now all across the UK, we're doing business loans. So we look for the cheapest money out there, and we get people the cheapest deals we can by brokering the business. And that's going to be a big thing. So more of the above.”

So do none of the celebrity shows at all appeal to you for the fun factor?

“I've been offered the jungle twice. I've turned it down twice. I got offered Strictly Come Dancing last year and I just find it very difficult to make it fit, because at first I just said ‘Look, I can't dance and they said ‘that's wonderful. That's better.’ Then they called again, and Nicky spoke to them, Mrs,F everybody needs a Nicky, and she said ‘No, he really can't dance’ and they thought that was even better. Then she said ‘look to fit six months of training in between all the other things that he does is almost impossible’ because I'm backwards and forwards to America, and I'm all over the place, filming things, not just here but abroad as well. I mean, I was in Australia for two weeks last year filming.So the likelihood of me being able to go to London for six months and film is just almost impossible. They said ‘well, it's okay, because we could send one of the ladies up to live with you’ and I thought, well, that's marvelous, but I'm not sure how that would work either, because then you'd have to have six months up here in the north that you weren't working because I've spent a lot of time in London as well, because I'm pretty much filming every week on some news story, so I just can't make it fit. And they said ‘Well, you know, we'll come back to you next year and have a chat to you then’. And I just think I'd have to really, really slow lots and lots of things down to make one of those shows fit.

“But I have pretty much been offered them all at least once, even Top Gear. A few years ago, when Chris Evans got the job, I was in Israel filming a piece for Channel Four about the price of diamonds and precious metals for making rings for weddings and things. I remember getting a call from the BBC saying ‘would you be interested in teaming up with Chris Evans?’ because, you know, I know a lot about vehicles and aircraft and things. I'm a fully qualified pilot of planes and helicopters.You know, I'd give Chris Evans a real run for his money, it didn’t worry me in the slightest bu the same again, it's six to nine months of filming commitments, and I just couldn't see a way of making that fit. So that a long winded answer to your question isn’t it? You know, the celebrity shows are great fun and they're wonderful to watch. However, I just don't have the time to commit to them properly, and I wouldn’t want to do something half hearted, so I thank them very much, and I carry on just being Dave. And you know, some of the social media stuff that I do, like the Tiktok. I mean, I've got the fastest growing aviation site in the world on Tiktok. We get 50 million views a year on that. Across the Facebook channels, we're getting 150 million views from the Facebook stuff that we do. I work on some of the social media things for Netflix, they have 250 million followers so that's a quarter of a billion people. You know, you're talking to a lot of people so you can get a really, really clear message out. You don't have to spend six months doing it and you can be working on lots of projects. That's what I prefer to do. Which shows do you like best?

I only like Celebrity Big Brother and Celebrity Traitors, I'm not one for dancing…

“I've been offered Celebrity Big Brother. I haven't been offered The Traitors yet. That does sound fun, though, doesn't it? Maybe Traitors. I'm not sure how many weeks that would entail, but maybe Traitors in the future, if I'm lucky enough to be asked.”

If you ever retire, you could fit in, is that a possibility?

“I don't think retiring is. I started off life as a builders labourer at 16 years old. I were absolutely useless with no qualifications, and we've gone on to build the first new high street bank for 150 years, and then Hollywood turned up, not just once, but twice, and now a musical. So anything's possible, but retirement, I think you've got to have a purpose in life, and you've got to have a reason to get out of bed in the morning. One of my children's a frontline police officer, and the other one works with animals. And I say ‘Look, you know, I'll help you do anything, but not nothing.’ And I've two grandsons, you know, I'm very, very lucky to have a wonderful family and a wonderful wife, and as long as I'm fit, I'd like to carry on as long as I possibly could. So I think using the profile and the resources to try and make a difference to people who are struggling or people who are in a tough time or people that don't have a voice, that's the thing that certainly gets me up in the morning.”

You're evidently a very motivated person. Do you know where that comes from?

“Well, my dad always worked really hard. My dad was a farm labourer in a morning, so he'd get up at 4am and then he'd walk up to the farm in Nelson, at Peter Smith's, and he'd milk the cows and do all the farm laboring work there. Then he'd walk down to the mill at one o'clock in the afternoon and do the two till 10 shift in the mill in Barrowford. He was a tackler, and the posh word for that is overlooker but they were also the person that fixed the loom. So he always worked two jobs every day, seven days a week. And my mom was a weaver. The house that we grew up in- I didn't know anybody had an inside toilet until I were 11 years old, because nobody on my street did. You know it was a very tough place. There were just me and my big brother, Andrew, and my mum and dad, and life were hard. You know, a lot of the time, we made hour own fun. I remember me and my brother going up to the tip and getting some old pram wheels and a bit of wood, and we'd nail them together and build a go kart and spend hours playing on that and that were life. So it's not where you start, it's where you finish that counts.”

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Yeah, because you're still in Lancashire but in a very different setting now…

“Yeah. I'm a very, very lucky person. I've got a country estate in Lancashire now, and I have all the things that you could possibly want or wish for, but the main thing is to be happy, to have a family that's healthy, and to have your own health. If you've got those things, you're truly blessed. Everything else is just material items. It's nice to have, but if I lost it all tomorrow, you know, I'd like to think I could go and get it again.”

What are your favorite things to do in Lancashire?

“The thing I love to do is fly, you know, I'm very lucky to have an aircraft hangar at home, and I've got a jet helicopter sat inside it, and I've been flying for a very, very long time. I'm an experienced pilot, and I like to go and find a big fluffy cloud to sit on. I fly up to it, and I'll, I'll sort of hove rthe skids of the helicopter onto the cloud, and almost let the cloud pull me along, and then I'll drop the lever as we drop through the cloud and it gives you the most wonderful feeling of freedom and it empties your mind of all problems. There's something very special about sitting on a cloud.”

And is there any activity the average Joe might get involved with? Any particular restaurants or walks?

I like steak, pudding, chips, peas and gravy. I like very, very simple foods. I don't like posh food. I don't like going to a la carte because I end up wanting a bag of chips on the way home because I'm still hungry. They give you these little small things that all taste very nice, but you still need something after. You still need a chip butty after. So, you know, I very much like simple foods. I like going to restaurants that sell that sort of thing. I tend to go to restaurants locally because I like to support local. You know, I've got all the things you could possibly imagine, and I still prefer the very simple things in life.”

So a home cooked meal instead?

“Well, I'll sometimes come home from being down at an event or something. I'll have been chatting to Simon Cowell or someone, I mean, I've met some of the biggest names in television and media and movies. So I'll come home and I'll say ‘I've just been chatting to Ant and Dec or Simon Cowell’. Nicky will say ‘never mind all that nonsense. Do you want corned beef hash or Cottage pie for your tea?’ and it grounds you immediately. You really do need that and that's why I love to keep the base here in Lancashire. London's wonderful to go to, but it's also wonderful to come home. And, you know, the countryside is for everybody, it's not just for people that can afford it. So it's important that people come and walk the countryside and walk the footpaths and rivers and trees. We have such a wonderful place here in Lancashire. Everywhere you look, you can see a tree or a field or a hill or whatever, you know. I think that's a wonderful part of what we've got here in Lancashire. And it is fantastic. I mean, I spend a lot of time in Preston. I go to Preston for the Preston to Euston train probably two, three times a week. Without it, I don't know where we'd go, we’d probably have to go to Manchester so yeah, I spend a lot of time in Preston as well as here.”

Do you ever have seaside trips to Blackpool?

“I spend a lot of time in Blackpool because of Blackpool airport. I have a soft spot for Blackpool airport. I mean, how wonderful to have an international airport here in Lancashire. I did a talk at Blackpool Football Club a couple of weeks ago, and I made a big point of how important it is to have an airport like that, and the fact that we really, really need to get it used more. My helicopter is actually there at the moment. It's having its service at the moment. There's a fantastic helicopter place there that most people probably don't even know about. It's called UKAS, UK Aviation and they do such a wonderful job. There'll be 25 helicopters in there today being worked on. There's a lot of things that happen in Blackpool Airport that people probably don't even know about, but it's such a special place. And I remember going to Blackpool as a child a lot. I also remember going on holidays to Southport and Morecambe and all across there as a kid. So I have really fond memories of all that area. To me, it's the Vegas of the north, and I wouldn't swap it for the world. I love going.”

Final question, for anyone who wants to get into finance or just generally, set up a business, become an entrepreneur, what advice would you give them?

“Well, you've got to have the courage to follow your dreams. Find something that you're really passionate about… So what job would you do if you didn't need paying? Whether you're going to be an entrepreneur or you're going to go work for somebody, who do you admire? Go and work for somebody you admire. If you're younger and you're at college or university still, then look around the room in that college or university, take a piece of paper and make two columns. In one column, write down the things that you really like about the people that you're in the room with. For instance, if somebody's really punctual, if somebody's always helpful, if somebody's the first to get there and the last to leave, if somebody takes less of the credit than somebody else, then write them qualities down. Then on the second column, write down the qualities you don't like about somebody. Is that person late? Is that person taking more of the credit than their due? Is that person always complaining? Is that person always making things difficult? Write that down and then look at the things in the first column that you really admire about people, and try and bring that more into your life, then some of the things that you don't admire, make sure you're not doing those things yourself.

“Overall, if you find a job that you're really passionate about, that you really want to do,that is one of the most wonderful things in life, to go and do something that you really want to do, and work for somebody that you look up to and admire. And if you're going to start a little business, then before you start it, for instance, if you want to start a pub or a restaurant or a cafe, then before you start the cafe, go to the busiest cafe you can find in the area that you're thinking of getting a place, get a job there, and watch what they're doing in that cafe. In that pub, you know, where do they get the booze from? Where do they get the food from? What food sells best? What arts on the wall? What decorations are in there? What quiz nights work best? Don't try and reinvent the wheel. Just borrow the best ideas. Take them with you. That'll save you so much time working all those things out. You know, just nick the best ideas. Take them with you, and that'll set you on your way.”