Category: TV
Drama
Date: 16.07.2004
Printable version
BBC TWO has
commissioned a major adaptation of Nobel Prize Winner William Golding's
classic sea trilogy, To The Ends Of The Earth, starring Benedict
Cumberbatch, following his acclaimed performance as cosmologist
Stephen Hawking in Hawking, and Sam Neill, whose many credits
include Jurassic Park and The Piano.
The drama also stars Jared Harris, who was a
superb Henry VIII in The Other Boleyn Girl, and Victoria Hamilton,
who played the young queen in Victoria and Albert.
Adapted by the late Leigh Jackson and Tony
Basgallop, To The Ends Of The Earth is a modern masterpiece by one
of the greatest novelists of the 20th century.
It comprises three 90-minute films based on Rites of
Passage, Close Quarters and Fire Down Below. The director is David
Attwood.
To The Ends Of The Earth is an intimate journey on an
epic scale, charting in dazzling and visceral detail the rite of passage
of Edmund Talbot, a young English aristocrat as he experiences life
on board a passenger ship making its hazardous sea voyage from England
to Australia in the early 19th century.
BBC Controller of Drama Commissioning Jane Tranter says:
"To The Ends Of The Earth is a spectacular and hugely ambitious
landmark drama, which will feel both very modern and radically different.
"It aims to take the nation on an epic journey
from one side of the globe to the other and, in so doing, it will tell
the most extraordinary story about human nature."
BBC Head of Drama Serials Laura Mackie says: "William
Golding uses the world of the ship as a modern microcosm in which to
explore the themes of human obsession, love and guilt, and our capacity
both for self-delusion and brutality.
"It's no coincidence that it's set at the beginning
of a new century: this is a haunting tale with an absurdist, blackly
comic edge.
"The prospect of their destination fills Talbot
and his fellow travellers with a hope that allows most of them to survive
- but this is contrasted with an ever-present sense of danger and a
fear of imminent death."
To The Ends Of The Earth is a BBC/Power co-production
in association with Tightrope Pictures.
The executive producers are Head of Drama Serials Laura
Mackie and Hilary Salmon (BBC), Justin Bodle (Power)
and Paul Abbott and Hilary Bevan Jones (Tightrope).
Justin Bodle, Chief Executive of Power, says: "To
The Ends of The Earth is event television in its purest sense, an ambitious
production that brings together a highly respected team that have the
talent and tools to realise William Golding's vision magnificently on
screen."
Filming is due to start in July in Durban and Richard's
Bay in South Africa, where a massive covered floating set has been built
for the upper decks of what is described as an outdated and decrepit
converted warship which "renders like an old boot".
Leigh Jackson's credits include BBC ONE's Prix Italia award-winning
Warriors, about British UN peace-keepers in Bosnia, and The Project,
which analysed New Labour's rise to power and the landslide election
victory of 1997.
Tony Basgallop wrote Summer In The Suburbs and Residents.
Director David Attwood's recent credits include May
33rd and The Hound of the Baskervilles, both for BBC ONE, in addition
to Moll Flanders and Shot Through The Heart.
The producer is Lynn Horsford.
Power is a global distribution and production company
that specialises in co-producing major event drama.
Recent credits include the critically acclaimed Gunpowder,
Treason and Plot for the BBC and Henry VIII for ITV.
