Friday night saw the return of an old favourite to our television screens. A new season of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries aired on ABC TV, but it was what followed the rolling of the credits that had me excited: the trailer of a two part mini-series based on Kate Grenville’s novel, The Secret River. No definite date has been announced for its screening, but you can see a preview here.
The lead roles of William and Sal Thornhill are played by British actor, Oliver Jackson-Cohen and Australian actress, Sarah Snook. Filming took place around the Lake Tyers area in East Gippsland, Victoria, and Sydney, New South Wales.
In 1806 William Thornhill, an illiterate English bargeman and a man of quick temper but deep compassion, steals a load of wood and, as a part of his lenient sentence, is deported, along with his beloved wife, Sal, to the New South Wales colony in what would become Australia. "The Secret River" is the tale of William and Sal's deep love for their small, exotic corner of the new world, and William's gradual realization that if he wants to make a home for his family, he must forcibly take the land from the people who came before him.
