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Airdate: The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce

1822, convicts, cannibals and Van Diemen's Land. A star cast brings a true story to life on the ABC.

There’s quite a cast assembled for this factual dramatisation of the final days of Irish convict Alexander Pearce in 1822.

It’s an unbelievable tale of convicts and cannibalisation, made as a co-production by the ABC TV, BBC and Ireland’s RTE.

The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce includes Irish actors Adrian Dunbar and Ciarán McMenamin plus Dan Wyllie, Chris Haywood, Don Hany, Bob Franklin and Martin Jacobs.

It screens 8:35pm Sunday, 25 January on ABC1.

Press Release:
In 1822, eight men escape from the most isolated and brutal prison on earth, Sarah Island in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania). Only one man survives and his tale of betrayal, murder and cannibalism shocks the British establishment to the core. His story is The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce.

The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce follows the final days of Irish convict Alexander Pearce’s (Ciarán McMenamin) life as he awaits execution.

The year is 1824 and the British penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land is little more than a living hell.

During his six months incarcerated in the Hobart gaol, chained to a wall in the darkness of a cell, Pearce is visited by Father Philip Conolly (Adrian Dunbar), the parish priest of the fledgling colony and a fellow Irishman. Conolly’s faith in his God is tested by what he hears.

Told as a factual drama, The Last Confession of Alexander Pearce draws a visceral and compelling picture of hell on earth and tells how one man endured the unimaginable by doing the unthinkable.

Stars Irish actors Adrian Dunbar (The Crying Game, My Left Foot) and Ciarán McMenamin (To End All Wars, Sunday), Dan Wyllie (Underbelly, Love My Way), Chris Haywood (Shine, Jindabyne), Don Hany (Lucky Miles, East West 101), Bob Franklin (Stupid Stupid Man, Macbeth) and Martin Jacobs (Changi, Stingers).

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