Well, they say that football is a game of two halves. The same can be true for two-part mini-series. Mary Bryant was a British convict who was sent to Australia in 1787. This mini-series was based on "Real Events" we were told. Well, real-ish anyway.
Romola Garai starred as Mary Bryant opposite the somewhat imagined figure of Jack Davenport's Lt Ralph Clarke. Davenport is currently cleaning up in playing members of the Royal Navy, as he also features in Pirates of the Caribbean (and its sequels) in essentially the same role.
The first part of this story depicted the fairly hideous conditions that the convicts must have endured over their long passage. In particular, it was always going to be unpleasant to be one of the few women in a boat full of men. Once in Botany Bay, they set about building a camp, always guarded by the Royal Marines sent out with them (surely as much of a prison sentence as for the convicts).
The second part of the programme told of Bryant's escape, along with a handful of other convicts. It is true that they made remarkable journey round the coast of Australia right up to Timor. However, the story became somewhat melodramatic at this point. The epic nature of the journey was not properly conveyed, and Davenport's character was shoe-horned into the ending. In fact, there were so many things wrong with the story that I haven't got space to go into them here.
It's worth noting that this has been sitting on ITV's shelves for quite some time. It was shown on Australian TV last autumn, but was actually completed in 2004. It's probably not worth bothering with the DVD.
Posted by adambowie at April 19, 2006 01:32 PM