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WATCH

Unusual suspects

Only one painting has ever been stolen from London’s National Gallery, where security is a prime concern. You might therefore expect that master criminals orchestrated this theft, which, in its day, caused a sensation – so much so that the first James Bond movie, Dr No, featured a playful nod to the affair.

In fact, the alleged culprit – not identified until four years after Francisco de Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington was taken, in 1961 – was a pensioner from Newcastle called Kempton Bunton. So what exactly happened? The director of public prosecutions’ file on the case was released in 2012, and is available to read in the National Archives. But don’t hurry to read spoilers – not when new comedy-drama film The Duke makes merry with a story that, when you hear it for the first time, defies belief.