zpzjones Review of The Timeless Land

The Timeless Land (1980)

Wonderful, picturesque history set in Australia

[13 May 2004]

This series I liked in the tradition of those mini-series found on PBS such as Poldark and Jewel In The Crown. I saw this on the History Channel in the late 90s and they encored it a number of times. It's about the first Europeans to Australia, aristocrats & convicts alike. They arrive and co-exist with the Aborigines who are natives to the continent. The convicts are basically treated like slaves by the higher ups. Nicola Pagett is the only player I recognize in the cast and she plays the wife of one of the arrogant landowners Mr Mannion. She later begins a relationship with a younger more gentler man John MacArthur whom her husband detests. Amongst the indentured women is the character played by Angela Punch MacGregor. She has a young son Johnny(about 9) and she is virtually a sexual slave as well as being a trodded upon servant to Mannion. Her son is cast off as he is not wanted and goes and lives with the Aborigines. He does not return until he is a fully grown man in his early twenties. By then his mother has died from despair and mistreament from Mannion. When Johnny learns that his mother was mistreated by Mannion all through the years and is responsible for his banishment he later kills him.(One is kept wondering if Mannion was Johnny's father. We never know.) Quite touching is how Johnny grew up with the Aborigines and how he has learned to survive through their cultural attitudes. After her husband's death Mrs Mannion(Pagett)blossoms in her relationship with John MacArthur and they eventually marry. A subplot of this series is the travails of two convicts who are always chained and are mistreated and do some mistreating to others. These are mean scenes but do justice historically to how those convicts would have been treated 200 years ago. All in All this is a very well done series, shot in color, which contrasts with so much despair the convicts and poor had to go through. Particularly Angela Punch MacGregor's character.