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Clip description
The First Fleet is on its way to Botany Bay. Governor Arthur Phillip (Sam Neill), Reverend Johnson (Garry McDonald) and Lieutenant Clarke (Jack Davenport) discuss the colony’s prospects over dinner. Down below, the convicts scrabble for leftovers. When Clarke visits the hold, Elizabeth (Alice McConnell) and other convicts scoff at his attempts to ‘reform’ them. Meanwhile, convicts Mary Broad (Romola Garai) and Will Bryant (Alex O’Loughlin) meet for the first time.
Curator’s notes
Mary Bryant sets up a battle between classes, between convicts and their keepers, underdogs and overlords, with sympathies firmly on the convicts’ side.
Lieutenant Clarke’s po-faced attempts at reformation here pre-empt a slide into cynicism. His uneasy mixture of misguided idealism and corruption embody Mary Bryant’s take on authority in the colony.
