British convicts have been sent to Australia as punishment for their crimes. As they try to live their new lives, they have to live with the new rules. The soldiers also have to adjust.
British drama created by Jimmy McGovern. The seven-part serial is inspired by events in the eighteenth century when Britain established a penal colony in Australia.—Clive Richards
At its heart, Banished is a story of survival. Though it is set in the stark historical reality of the founding of the penal colony in Australia in 1788 after the arrival of the First Fleet, it is not the story of Australia and how it came to be. Rather, it is a tale of love, faith, justice and morality played out on an epic scale in a confined community where the stakes are literally life and death.
The series depicts life in the penal colony of New South Wales in the year 1788. The British Empire deports both male and female convicts there, but men outnumber the women. Fraternization between convicts of opposite sex is banned by regulation, but convicts Tommy Barrett and Elizabeth Quinn are lovers. The governor Arthur Phillip (1738-1814, term 1788-1792) has to decide what to do with them.—Dimos I
Banished, Jimmy McGoverns fictional seven-part series loosely inspired by events in the 18th century when Britain established a penal colony on the other side of the world.
This charts the lives, loves, relationships and battle for survival of a group of convicts, the soldiers who guard them and the men who govern them in the early days of this settlement.
Jimmy McGovern says: How the first convicts survived is the best story I've come across in over 30 years as a dramatist. When you've got something like that, you don't worry about the narrative; you just concentrate on the characters. That is what we did. Consequently, I don't think I've ever written anything so character-driven.
The series opens at dawn in New South Wales, Australia, 1788. Tents are pitched and there is a scattering of timber buildings on a strip of land between the impenetrable bush and the mighty Pacific Ocean.
It is here that the convicts transported on the First Fleet and their masters are waking up to another sweltering hot day in a place where anything can happen and death stalks everyone. With supplies running out and the group ill-equipped for life on this inhospitable shoreline, who will survive the next 10 days?
Australian actor David Wenham (Top Of The Lake) plays Governor Arthur Phillip, a pragmatic idealist who hopes to turn this ramshackle settlement from penal colony to land of opportunity for all, while his nemesis Major Ross, played by Joseph Millson (Holby City), thinks the only chance of survival is to rule with an iron fist.
Yet all that seems unshakeable are the passionate bonds of love and friendship forged between convicts: Elizabeth Quinn (Myanna Buring), Tommy Barrett (Julian Rhind-Tutt) and James Freeman (Russell Tovey). But, before long, this shared devotion is destined to challenge the very doctrines on which the fledging colony has been founded.
Also featuring in this epic series about human courage and endeavour, love, loss and impossible choices are Ewen Bremner (Accused) as the pious Reverend Johnson, with Genevieve OReilly (The Honourable Woman) as his selfless wife and Brooke Harman (Dance Academy) as Deborah Governor Phillips housekeeper. Orla Brady (Strike Back) plays intuitive convict Anne Meredith and Joanna Vanderham (The Paradise) is the dangerously beautiful convict Katherine McVitie.
Rory McCann (Game Of Thrones) is the formidable felon Marston, whose skills as blacksmith are indispensable. Soldiers are played by Adam Nagaitis (Inbetweeners 2) as the loathed Private Buckley; Sergeant Timmins is played by Cal MacAninch (Mr Selfridge); Ryan Corr (Wolf Creek 2) is Private MacDonald and David Dawson (Peaky Blinders) is Captain David Collins.
Other convicts are played by Nick Moss (The Mill) as hard man Spragg, David Walmsley (The Smoke) as Stubbins with Ned Dennehy (Blitz) as Letters Molloy, whose rare literacy is both a blessing and a burden.
