Jacob Elordi, Ciarán Hinds, Odessa Young Drama ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North’ Sells to BBC

Jacob Elordi and Ciarán Hinds play the same man, at different stages of his life, in the Australian war drama The Narrow Road to the Deep North, directed by Justin Kurzel (The Order, Macbeth, True History of the Kelly Gang), which the BBC has acquired for the U.K.

The adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel of the same name from Sony Pictures Television-backed Curio Pictures consists of five episodes of 45 minutes each. The series, adapted by writer Shaun Grant, will premiere on Prime Video in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada and then air on BBC One and stream on the BBC iPlayer in the U.K.

“The series is a savagely beautiful five-part saga charting the life of Dorrigo Evans (played by Jacob Elordi as a young man, with Ciarán Hinds as the older Dorrigo), through his passionate love affair with Amy Mulvaney (Odessa Young), his time held captive in a POW camp, and his later years spent as a revered surgeon and reluctant war hero,” according to a synopsis.

“The Narrow Road to the Deep North is an intimate character study of a complex man, a compelling portrayal of the courage and cruelty of war, and an unforgettable love story that sustains one through the darkest of times,” it adds.

Said Sue Deeks, head of BBC program acquisition: “The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a complex, beautiful, and heart-wrenching series which sensitively interweaves several stages in the life of surgeon Dorrigo Evans, from the passion of first love to the unflinching depiction of life as a prisoner of war in occupied Burma.”