Eddie Marsan to close the 2026 Chiswick In Film festival with a Q&A about his new film No Ordinary Heist

No Ordinary Heist (2026); Images IMDb

Based on the true story of 2004 Belfast bank job where robbers stole £26.5 million and got away with it

Multi-award-winning actor and Chiswick resident Eddie Marsan will be speaking about his latest film No Ordinary Heist at the Chiswick In Film festival 2026.

‘In heavily policed, post conflict Belfast, two Northern Bank workers become pawns when a dangerous gang use tiger-kidnapping in an unorthodox, brilliant bank heist’ – IMDb.

The film, on release in UK cinemas this weekend, was inspired by the true story of bank robbery in which two bank officials were forced to rob their own bank. On 20 December 2004 the thieves got away with  £26.5 million – the biggest bank robbery in the history of the UK and Ireland.

So big were the repercussions of the robbery they affected the Northern Ireland peace process, under negotiation at the time. The Police Service of Northern Ireland, the British government and the Taoiseach of Ireland all claimed the IRA was responsible, which the IRA and Sinn Féin denied. No one directly involved was ever caught.

Eddie Marsan (Back to Black, Happy Go Lucky) and Éanna Hardwicke (Saipan; Normal People) play the bank officials whose families are held hostage in this gripping thriller.

Eddie Marsan; No Ordinary Heist; IMDb

The film premiere was in Belfast last week and Eddie told Radio Ulster:

“I was fascinated by the opening, the opening first ten pages, the idea that the bank manager and the security guard were forced to rob their own bank. It was a brilliant script. It was brilliantly paced out. And then when you add the music, the music in the film had such incredible tension”.

What also makes it different to the run of the mill bank heist movie is the relationship between the two. It is a very human story, and the kind of work relationship that is very relatable.

Richard Murray (Eddie Marsan) disapproves of his junior colleague Barry McKenna, thinking he drinks too much and is sloppy and careless in his work.

Will Penn reviewed the film at the Dublin International Film Festival:

‘As it becomes apparent that these two diametrically opposed men must work together to get their loved ones back safely, the tension compounds relentlessly. A redundancy dispute, ignored, festers beneath the surface as the two toil to appease their faceless tormentors…

‘But despite its emotional heft, the film takes tender moments for comedy. Marsan and Hardwicke are truly excellent together, at loggerheads one moment, laughing the next. It is this human element that lies at the film’s core and makes it sing’.

Eddie Marsan and Éanna Hardwicke

Speaking at the festival Eddie said:

“When I read it, I realised it wasn’t really a heist movie. It was a movie about prejudice. The two men hate each other and have a prejudicial opinion of each other, and they must transcend that in order to save something precious to them. That’s fascinating to me as an actor and as a human being”.

Eddie will be talking to The Chiswick Calendar’s editor Bridget Osborne after a screening of the film at 7pm on Sunday 29 March.

Book tickets: No Ordinary Heist

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