Airdate: The North Water

Ambitious period drama The North Water will be available in full at Foxtel on Demand from Tuesday November 2 (it’s already been available as a Foxtel First treat).

Produced by Australian / UK based See-Saw Films the 5 part series features Jack O’Connell, Colin Farrell and Stephen Graham in an epic adaptation of the acclaimed novel about a whaling expedition that becomes a struggle for survival.

Set in Hull, England, and on the ice floes of the Arctic in the late 1850s, the drama was filmed primarily in the Arctic, shooting on the frozen seas north of the Svalbard Archipelago. The cast and production team sailed as far as 81 degrees north to film sequences in the pack ice, the furthest point north it is believed a drama series has ever filmed before.

Based on Ian McGuire’s best-selling novel of the same name, The North Water tells the story of Patrick Sumner (O’Connell), a disgraced ex-army surgeon who signs up as ship’s doctor on a whaling expedition to the Arctic. On board he meets Henry Drax (Farrell), the harpooner, a brutish killer whose amorality has been shaped to fit the harshness of his world. Hoping to escape the horrors of his past, Sumner finds himself on an ill-fated journey with a murderous psychopath. In search of redemption, his story becomes a harsh struggle for survival in the Arctic wasteland.

The North Water also stars Stephen Graham (Line of Duty, The Irishman) as ‘Captain Brownlee’, Tom Courtenay (45 Years, The Aeronauts) as ‘Baxter’ and Peter Mullan (Mum, Top Of The Lake) as the Priest.

Commissioned by the BBC, The North Water (5×60’) is made by See-Saw Films for the BBC and AMC+. The series is adapted and directed by Andrew Haigh. Executive producers are Jamie Laurenson, Hakan Kousetta, Iain Canning and Emile Sherman for See-Saw Films, Niv Fichman for Rhombus Media, and Jo McClellan for the BBC. The series was produced by Kate Ogborn. The North Water is a co-production with Rhombus Media and is distributed internationally by BBC Studios.

Tuesday 2 November at Foxtel on Demand.