Review of To The Ends Of The Earth

Introduction

To The Ends of the Earth is a new period drama from the BBC, based on a trilogy from William Golding. This drama consists of three 90 minute episodes as follows:

Episode 1 - Rites of Passage

Edmund Talbot (Benedict Cumberbatch) boards a ship to Australia where he is due to take up a position on the High Commission. A misunderstanding of ship`s etiquette by him leads ultimately to the humiliation and slow death of Parson Colley (Daniel Evans). The subsequent inquiry held by the master of the ship, Captain Anderson (Jared Harris), leads Talbot to re-think some of his pre-conceptions.

Episode 2 - Close Quarters

An accident to the sails slows the ship down. Becalmed in the middle of fog, the situation gets more tense as it becomes apparent that a possible enemy ship is nearby. The a meeting with a friendly ship brings Talbot into close proximity with Marion Chumley (Joanna Page), a young lady with who he is immediately smitten.

Episode 3 - Fire Down Below

Worsening sea conditions lead the passengers to form an ad-hoc committee to try and persuade the Captain to change course. Deciding to speak to Lt Summers first, Talbot is dismayed to find that the ship`s Officers believe the ship may sink. Despite his instinct to tell his fellow passengers, Talbot is sworn to secrecy in order to prevent panic. Mr Prettimen (Sam Neill) and Miss Granham (Victoria Hamilton) are married by Captain Anderson in an attempt by the former to ensure that Miss Granham inherits his fortune upon his expected death. Lt Benét (Niall Macgregor) comes up with a novel but possibly dangerous method of securing the main mast so that the ship may make better speed.

Video

Excellent picture for the most part on a production that took the unusual step of using two cameras for filming. Astounding attention to detail in both costume and background activity. As a viewer, you really get to feel as claustrophobic as the characters travelling in this ship.

Audio

Sweeping sumptuous score from composer Rob Lane, who has previously provided scores for a large number of TV series including Prime Suspect 6 and Blackpool. Some good sound effects on board ship that really allows you to believe that you are on board a rickety creaking old ship.

Sadly for a BBC production, there are no subtitles.

Features

Making Of - 18 minute behind the scenes featurette that examines the characters, interviews with the principal actors and also looks at how the filming of this series was achieved.

Character Gallery - scored slideshow of character stills from the production

Production Gallery - another scored slideshow, this time showing behind the scenes stills of various parts of the production.

Conclusion

I`ve never been a big fan of period drama and went into this one a little wearily, it has to be said. Like Edmund Talbot, however, my pre-conceptions of how this would play out were challenged. The whole piece is really about how Talbot grows up from the naïve and clumsy youngster to something that can almost be considered a man during the events of the long voyage from England to Australia. Cumberbatch plays the young aristocrat with great aplomb, moving from pompous to clumsy to arrogant to humble with ease.

Of course, he couldn`t do all this on his own and has a lot of help from a rather splendid cast that includes the magnificent Sam Neill (as one of the most garrulous characters he`s ever played), Jared Harris, James Sives, Charles Dance and Denise Black amongst others. As this piece is a curious mix of adventure on the high seas and Big Brother as the characters who make up this piece are thrown together in a confined space and relationships start, grow and falter in equal measure.

There are times when the pace slows down and I`m still not sure that the episode length is right, at times 90 minutes starts to drag, but overall this is a quality production with a nice mix of drama, pathos and comedy. Anyone who wants an idea of what it was like to travel as a passenger during the 19th Century would do no better than watch this series.