New epic serial from Jimmy McGovern

BBC Two has commissioned a new eight-part drama from multi-award-winning Jimmy McGovern and the acclaimed team at RSJ Films about the birth of Australia.

inspired by the events of the late 1780s when Britain deported its unwanted citizens to the very edge of the known world. This fictional account of human courage and endeavour, love, loss and terrible choices begins several months after the First Fleet has arrived. It is told through the eyes of three convicts: James Freeman, Tommy Barrett and Elizabeth Quinn. Their passionate friendship is a rollercoaster of survival set between the deadly, bush and the infinite blue of the mighty Pacific Ocean.

Jimmy McGovern says: “In 1787 when Britain banished its petty thieves, whores, orphans and highwaymen – to Sydney Cove, a place so hot and barren and hostile that very few people had ever set foot there. It was an audacious social experiment, unparalled before or since. Yet these rejects from Britain, accompanied by soldiers, officers, a vicar and a doctor, survived against all the odds, in spite of famine, drought, escapes, hangings and floggings, the colony thrived. This is their story.”

The drama is currently in pre-production with a title and casting to be announced in the coming months.