After a three-month wait, UK viewers can finally watch all five episodes of Jacob Elordi’s acclaimed World War Two drama on the BBC.
The widely-praised show, The Narrow Road to the Deep North, has secured an impressive 100% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics who have called it a ‘powerful’ and ‘gritty’ watch.
Based on Richard Flanagan’s 2014 Booker Prize-winning novel, the Amazon Prime series follows Australian doctor Dorrigo Evans (portrayed by the Saltburn actor).
Our rugged protagonist is haunted by his past affair with his uncle’s wife as he reckons with his time as a far East prisoner of wat building the Burma railway.
As put by the synopsis on BBC iPlayer: ‘From the passion of forbidden love to the pain of life as a prisoner of war – the unforgettable story of one man’s reckoning with the echoes of guilt.’
This is a story of love, loss and regret that has already been hailed by US and Australian audiences as the ‘utterly immersive’ masterpiece finalling arrives on UK shores.
‘It’s gorgeous, ugly, and stirring, with parts that seared themselves into my brain, and it got me to read a really good novel,’ a review in Slate reads.
‘There’s a visceral quality to most scenes as the show teases out the pains and pleasures of the body along with its grander ideas about the mind, the heart, the world, war,’ The New York Times echoed.
‘You never doubt the show’s realism, or the compassion underpinning it. This is less about the theatre of war than the psychological stain it leaves,’ The Guardian reflected.
Meanwhile, audiences have heartily echoed these glowing words.
‘A moving, confronting drama. Like the novel, it jumps about in time, but this mirrors the central character, haunted in old age by the memory of his time on “the line”,’ google review elitist20 wrote.
‘While I can’t speak to the historical accuracy of the show, it was easily one of the most jarring, tragic, and captivating stories I’ve seen in a long time. It portrays the rawness of life—its profound losses, fleeting moments of love, and the absence of clear redemption or triumph,’ Karen Garcia reflected.
Tonka truck called it ‘beautiful and well acted’ while Amanda Orlando said that the ‘series just destroyed’ them.
‘I still cannot think about it without crying. Every moment, and every character, were compelling,’ Amanda added in her review.
‘Perfection, terrifying and moving to the soul,’ Joanne Conrad declared.
World War Two dramas to watch after The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Band of Brothers: This 10-episode award-winning drama from 2001 is co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and stars Damian Lewis, James McAvoy and Simon Pegg.
The series follows the exploits of Easy Company (506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, U.S. Army) across Europe throughout the duration of the war based on real-life testimony.
Band of Brothers if available to stream on Now and Sky.
All the Light We Cannot See: Based on Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller from 2014, the adaptation is set in the final days of World War Two where the paths of a blind French girl and a German soldier collide.
Written by Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight, the show stars newcomer Aria Mia Loberti and Mark Ruffalo.
All the Light We Cannot See is available to stream on Netflix
Masters of the Air: This star-studded show, based on Donald L. Miller’s 2007 non-fiction book, features Ncuti Gatwa, Callum Turner and Barry Keoghan as members of US Army Airforces’ 100th Bomb Group.
We follow their journey as ‘they conduct perilous bombing raids over Nazi Germany from their base in East Anglia.’
Masters of the Air is available to stream on Apple TV+.
Elordi is joined by Odessa Young, Olivia DeJonge and Ciaran Hinds in this show directed by Justin Kurzel and written by Shaun Grant.
There’s no doubt the entire production was an intense labour of love.
The cast involved in the prisoner of war storyline underwent a gruelling six-week boot camp to replicate the bodies of the emaciated imprisoned soldiers of the era, as Elordi told The Guardian.
‘We were all in it together, so there was this great overwhelming amount of love in the whole process.
‘It was incredibly challenging but deeply necessary, of course … because nobody wanted to phone that in or make a mockery of it,’ the 28-year-old actor told the publication.’
As mentioned, the show flits between different timelines, which is an essential part of the storytelling brought to life from the page.
‘Richard always said to me the most important thing to him – even though he gave his permission for me to really own it in some way as a piece of cinema – was the tapestry of different time changes.
‘Being deliberately forced into those different moments of memory were really important to him. That was the only feeling I had going into it,’ Justin told Hollywood Reporter.
The Narrow Road to the Deep North is now available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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