The BBC Takes 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North'

Australian writer Richard Flanagan's The Narrow Road to the Deep North was an international bestseller released in 2014. His sixth novel, the mid-century set story, was based partly on his father's experiences before and during World War II, intermixed with a fictionalized version of Edward “Weary” Dunlop, an Australian World War II veteran and doctor renowned in his home country for standing up to his Japanese captors as a prisoner of war. The book was, naturally, optioned for adaptation as the streaming wars heated up, but wound up in development hell until November 2022, when production finally got off the ground. Now, the BBC has announced it is picking up the completed series to air in 2025.

Buoyed by its initial successes with American Gods on Starz, Fremantle acquired rights to Narrow Road to the Deep North in March 2018. It was moving ahead with production when everything ran into the buzzsaw of the pandemic. It took a couple of years, but Fremantle finally bowed out of the series in early 2022, allowing new producers to make it. Filming started in 2023 but only completed work in March 2024, six years after it was announced.

The series landed a release on Amazon's Prime Video in Australia; however, internationally, the series was homeless until the BBC decided to step in and acquire the series, significantly boosting its chances of landing American distribution. BBC shows have a certain level of cache that Prime Video series simply don't, even when they are acquisitions like this one and are likely to be picked up by any of half a dozen streamers in the U.S., including PBS and BritBox.

Here’s the series synopsis:

The series is a five-part saga charting the life of Dorrigo Evans, including his passionate love affair with Amy Mulvaney, his time held captive in a WW2 POW camp, and his later years as a revered surgeon and reluctant war hero. An intimate character study of a complex man, the epic drama is a compelling portrayal of the courage and cruelty of war and a timeless love story that sustains one through the darkest of times.

Jacob Elordi (Saltburn) and Ciarán Hinds (Belfast) share the role of Dorrigo Evans. Elordi plays him as a young man, and Hinds takes over the lead as the war concludes. Odessa Young (The Staircase) co-stars as Amy Mulvaney. The supporting cast includes Heather Mitchell (The Secrets She Keeps), Thomas Weatherall (Royal Flying Doctor Service), Charles An (Last King of the Cross), Olivia DeJonge (Elvis), Shô Kasamatsu (Dear Patient), Taki Abe (The Wolverine), Simon Baker (The Mentalist), and Masa Yamaguchi (The Brighton Miracle).

All five series episodes were adapted by writer Shaun Grant from Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name and directed by Justin Kurzel, with Alexandra Taussig producing. Kurzel, Grant, and Flanagan are executive producers alongside Jo Porter & Rachel Gardner for Curio Pictures.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North is expected to premiere on the BBC in 2025 and will hopefully land an American distributor soon,