The Secret River
ABC, Sunday, 8.30pm
THIS two-part mini-series harks back to the golden days of epic Australian mini-series on television. Think Against the Wind, Timeless Land, Bodyline and Dirtwater Dynasty.
Beautifully shot and nicely realised, this a first contact story about early convict colonists and is based on the multi-award winning bestseller of the same name by Kate Grenville.
The Secret River tells the story of early colonists Will and Sal Thornhill trying to survive in this new land with two sons and a baby daughter.
In Sal’s case, a freesettler who followed her convict husband to the colony, everything they do is about getting “home”.
Will is much more resigned to the fact that his family’s future is now not only in the fledgling colony but thanks to the another freed convict (played by current television go-to-guy Lachy Hulme) it’s on the Hawkesbury.
The Secret River was inspired by Kate Grenville’s desire to understand the history of her ancestor Solomon Wiseman, who settled on the Hawkesbury River at the area now known as Wisemans Ferry.
However this is a fictional account of what life may have been like and what the first interactions between a people desperate for land and to have something of their own and another people who have no concept of land ownership.
Screenwriters, Jan Sardi (Oscar nominated for Shine) and Mac Gudgeon (Killing Time), and director Daina Reid (Paper Giants: The Birth of Cleo) have combined to bring it to the screen. And what they have produced is a beautifully, realised, poignant and yet tragic character piece.
This is what Australian television can do at its best.
Brit Oliver Jackson-Cohen (Larks Rise to Candleford) leads an impressive but understated cast as the impoverished Thames Waterman sent out to Australia after stealing wood to keep his family alive. He is matched well with South Australian Sarah Snook as his wife Sal – she is tough – probably tougher than her husband but Snook gives her a beautiful, well-rounded feel.
You feel how foreign and strange and scary this world is through the eyes of Sal. Australian’s Trevor Jamieson, Lachy Hulme and Tim Minchin (with a pretty fair Irish accent) round out the main cast.
But the backdrop – the Australian bush – is another major character in this and it is used to great effect. But this is a less is more mini-series – we hear the horrors of early Sydney at night without having to see most of them laid out in front of us.
This is a beautifully crafted and realised piece of television and while it doesn’t have car chases, new recipes and no-one gets a new wife or bathroom – it is an example of what television can be when it is done well.
– Tania Phillips
