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Jack tar's career is all at sea(Sunday Mercury Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)WE'RE getting used to seeing Jack Davenport in an 18th century Royal Navy uniform, trying to uphold the law. In the summer he returns as Commander Norrington in the long-awaited sequel to Pirates Of The Caribbean. But first he's on board another wooden ship in a two-part TV drama. It wouldn't be Easter without a period drama, and ITV1 obliges with The Incredible Journey Of Mary Bryant, shown on Sunday and Monday. It's based on the true story of a female convict transported to Australia on the First Fleet, who shot to fame when she managed to escape from the penal colony. Jack plays Lieutenant Ralph Clarke, who presides over a ship full of prisoners being shipped to Botany Bay. Among them is 17-year-old Mary Broad (Romola Garai), who was caught robbing a woman in an effort to feed her family. By the time she is sent to Australia, she is pregnant by a jailer, with whom she slept as the only means to escape starvation. She is on board one of 11 ships going Down Under, under the command of Sam Neill and Lt Clarke, who is travelling alone since his wife refused to come on the journey. There's an instant chemistry between Mary and another convict, Will Bryant (Alex O'Lachlan), but Clarke also falls for her, and rescues her when she almost drowns during a terrible storm. Then he feels humiliated when he discovers she is pregnant. When the ship reaches Australia, everyone discovers it is not the paradise they expected, but Will and Mary marry and try to make the best of it - until they hatch a daring escape plan. Jack reveals that filming in Australia wasn't all fun. "I just wish I hadn't been wearing quite so many clothes," he says. "I lost lots of weight and my brain was like scrambled eggs, because it was so hot." He also found that filming for TV was much more rushed than for the big screen, revealing that one action sequence for the new Pirates Of The Caribbean, Dead Man's Chest, took a whole six months to film. And that level of perfectionism can get a little tiresome. "It is a bit boring sometimes," he confesses about the blockbuster, which co-stars Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom. "But, to be honest, that's kind of what you get paid for in that sort of movie." Jack, who is married to Green Wing actress Michelle Gomez, will finally finish the Pirates Of The Caribbean trilogy in the autumn. Then it's possible he may appear in a new episode of the cult BBC2 drama This Life, after the cast were reunited for its 10th anniversary. |