Sindre Kaspersen
Scottish-Australian producer and television and film director George T. Miller and Australian producer and director Simon Wincer's television mini-series in thirteen episodes which was written by Australian screenwriter, producer and director Ian Jones, Australian screenwriter and producer Bronwyn Binns and screenwriters Peter Kinloch, Tony Morphett, Paul Davies, Cliff Green and Tom Hegarty, is inspired by real people and events and an idea by Bronwyn Binns. It premiered in Australia, was shot on locations in Australia and is an Australian production which was produced by producer Henry Crawford. It tells the story about a domestic servant named Mary Kathleen Mulvane who lives on a farm in a county of Cork, Ireland called Rathcurran in the highlands with her father named Francis who is a landowner and teacher, her mother named Cathy who is a housewife and her sister named Elly and brother named Seamus. Mary has a close friendship with a neighbour named Michael Connor whose views on how to protest against the British soldiers differs from those of her father and is part of a group of Irish rebels who calls themselves The White Boys and who are in an ongoing dispute with soldiers of the British Army called Redcoats. During this autumn in the late 1700s when Ireland was under English rule, Mary becomes involved with Michael's rebellion and after being accused of being his accomplice regarding an incident at a parish, she is sentenced to seven years of penal servitude and placed on a convict ship called Britannia with forty-three other women. Subtly and engagingly directed by Australian filmmakers George T. Miller and Simon Wincher, this quietly paced and somewhat fictional tale which is narrated from multiple viewpoints though mostly from the two main characters' viewpoints, draws a comprehensive, involving and humane portrayal of a Roman Catholic woman whom after surviving a long, flogging and draining voyage and befriending another convict from Dublin, Ireland named Polly McNamara is assigned to serve her punishment as a servant for an English family of settlers named Wiltshire at a farm nearby Parramatta, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia and introduced to an English convict named Jonathan Edward Garrett. While notable for its naturalistic, atmospheric and variegated milieu depictions, efficiently grained cinematography by Australian cinematographer Dan Burstall and fine art direction by art directors Clive Jones and Tracy Watt and costume design, this character-driven and narrative-driven story about colonialism, emigration, oppression of Catholicism in Ireland and Australia, British-Irish relations, human exploitation, political anarchy, defiance of tyranny and the preservation of human dignity where an Irish prisoner whom is set on returning to her homeland finds herself dictated by an anti-Catholic middle-class wife and mother, persecuted by a characterless English ensign named Maurice Greville from the New South Wales Corps and separated from her friend who starts a new life with an English innkeeper named Will Price, depicts multiple dense studies of character and contains a memorable score by composers Mario Millo and Jon English. This historic, at times humorous, conversational, multi-dimensionally atmospheric and epic though commendably understated period drama from the late 1970s which is set in Ireland during the reign of King George III of Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and mostly during the European settlement in the then newly established colony of New South Wales, Australia in the early 19th century, which lasts more than nine hours, which reverently reconstructs historical events and where life in a penal colony becomes a struggle for an unfree labourer in a foreign country much due to an officer in The Rum Corps and his sadistic partner-in-crime named Jonas Pike, and bearable much due to her own strength of character and education, a fair-minded English captain named Charles Wiltshire, a fellow countryman and United Irishman from Toongabbie prison farm named Dinny O'Byrne who shares her father's dream and an aspiring farmer from Essex, England, is impelled and reinforced by its cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, subtle continuity, contradictory and endearing characters, emphasis on the characters, the social segregation, lasting friendships and the distinction between human decency and human cruelty, engaging and informative dialog, virtuous depiction of Irish, English and Australian history, extraordinary scenes between Jonathan and Mary, distinct acting performances by actress Mary Larkin and English musician and actor Jon English and the noteworthy acting performances by actress Kerry McGuire and actors Frank Gallacher, Gerard Kennedy, Fred Parstow and Warwick Sims. A heartrendingly biographical, authentically romantic and pervasive love-story.
cathyshin
Man, amazing how many of us saw this as kids and still remember it! Now that said, I mostly recall that I was totally hot for Greville (I must have been about 13) and I can't really remember details of the plot or much else except that I loved watching the thing.I'm another one of those who would love to get this on DVD.I'm actually going to Australia this Sept but wondering if the DVD will play on my American machine. Funny that I've been there twice before and never thought of this. Someone brought up Dr Who, another PBS import that I loved from that era, which made me get all sentimental about watching Poldark, Duchess of Duke Street and Against the Wind :)
ykay65
FINALLY it is out on DVD - all 13 episodes in a 4 DVD set at a reasonable price too. The storyline is as good as I remember. I am so glad that someone actually listened to many, many requests for this to be relaunched as a DVD!! What I cannot understand is why it has never appeared on the TV since it was run the first time. It is great to see some well known names from early in their acting careers. It is hard to believe that this series is almost 30 years old. The acting is superb and the story is timeless. Jon English has done a fantastic job with his music and his acting is excellent. I would love to see some of the other great Australian series, such as Rush, be reproduced on DVD like Against the Wind.
