The Luminaries is a 2020 drama television miniseries written by Eleanor Catton (based on her 2013 novel The Luminaries) and directed by Claire McCarthy. The series is centred on a young adventurer named Anna Wetherell (Eve Hewson), who has travelled from the United Kingdom to start a new life in New Zealand during the 1860s West Coast Gold Rush.
In New Zealand The Luminaries premiered on TVNZ 1 on 17 May 2020 and then had its first broadcast in the UK on BBC One on 21 June 2020. The series has received mixed reviews from critics, though it went on to earn 14 nominations at the 2020 New Zealand Television Awards, winning 8 of them.
Background
Eleanor Catton's novel was awarded the 2013 Man Booker Prize. TVNZ summarises the story as an "epic drama (that) tells the 19th-century tale of love, murder and revenge as men and women travel across the world to make their fortunes on the wild West Coast of New Zealand's South Island." The BBC synopsis added that the series is set "in the boom years of the 1860s gold rush". The script was written by Catton herself and was said to be "very different from the book".
Trailers for the series, providing additional specifics, were released by the BBC on 12 June 2020.
Cast and characters
Main
Eve Hewson as Anna Wetherell
Eva Green as Lydia Wells
Himesh Patel as Emery Staines
Ewen Leslie as Crosbie Wells
Marton Csokas as Francis Carver
Benedict Hardie as Alistair Lauderback
Erik Thomson as Dick Mannering
Richard Te Are as Te Rau Tauwhare
Recurring
Callan Mulvey as George Shepard
Michael Sheasby as Walter Moody
Joel Tobeck as Ben Lowenthal
Paolo Rotondo as Aubert Gascoigne
Matt Whelan as Cowell Devlin
Matthew Sunderland as Joseph Pritchard
Byron Coll as Charlie Frost
Mark Mitchison as Thomas Balfour
Yoson An as Sook Yongsheng
Erroll Shand as Harald Nilssen
Kirean Charnock as Edgar Clinch
Gary Young as Quee Long
Charlie Corrigan as Graves
Nic Sampson as Sinclair
Episodes and synopsis
Production
British producer Andrew Woodhead optioned the novel for television in 2013, before the book had been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. He saw the potential for a television series in the "rich and vivid world" portrayed in the novel and in its core mystery: "What drives a human being to risk their life on a six-month sea voyage to the other side of the world in the hope of making their fortune on a gold field?" Catton was brought on as the screenwriter for the series, an "unusual if not entirely unheard-of" arrangement. She wrote hundreds of drafts of the pilot episode, but in late 2015 the BBC declined the series; she then shifted the focus to make the protagonist Anna Wetherell, a minor character in the book, and rewrote the series, which was commissioned by the BBC in mid-2016.
In 2019, it was reported that BBC Two was producing a miniseries adaptation, to be directed by McCarthy. The miniseries was produced by Working Title Television and Southern Light Films for BBC Two in association with TVNZ, Fremantle, and Silver Reel, with funding from the New Zealand Film Commission. Catton served as showrunner with director McCarthy during filming.
According to Condé Nast Traveler, the series was filmed at many locations in New Zealand, including the South Island's southeast coast, Hokitika on the West Coast and near Auckland. The Wild West-style main street of Dunedin was set in the car park of a film studio. Other locations included the Tawharanui Peninsula, Te Henga (Bethells Beach) (at and near the water) and a farm where the village of Hokitika and Chinatown were recreated. Because the Arahura River was experiencing flooding, the production shot at Crooked River. The scene of Anna and Emery’s arrival by boat in New Zealand was filmed at Whangaroa; a small set was built on a barge. Catton had insisted on the series being produced on the West Coast, as the flora and fauna there are unique.
Release
The Luminaries premiered on TVNZ 1 on 17 May 2020 and was also available on TVNZ's streaming service TVNZ On Demand. In the United Kingdom, the series was originally intended for distribution by BBC Two but premiered on BBC One on 21 June 2020.
Starz network aired The Luminaries in the United States beginning on 14 February 2021.