The Narrow Road to the Deep North is an Australian drama miniseries based on the novel of the same name by Richard Flanagan. It was written by Shaun Grant and directed by Justin Kurzel. The series stars Jacob Elordi as Dorrigo Evans, with a supporting ensemble cast including Ciarán Hinds, Olivia DeJonge, Heather Mitchell, Odessa Young, Show Kasamatsu, Simon Baker, Essie Davis, and Dan Wyllie.
The series follows Evans across three periods, from before his deployment to the Second World War, to during his time as a Far East prisoner of war, and continuing into several decades following the war. The series was released on Amazon Prime Video on 18 April 2025 and received critical acclaim and accolades including nine wins at the 15th AACTA Awards and six nominations at the Logie Awards of 2026 (including acting nominations for Baker, Elordi, Mitchell, Thomas Weatherall, and Young), with Baker winning. For his performance, Elordi also earned nominations for the Golden Globe Award and Satellite Award, winning the latter.
Contents
Cast and characters
Main
Jacob Elordi as Dorrigo Evans
Ciarán Hinds as Older Dorrigo Evans
Olivia DeJonge as Ella
Heather Mitchell as Older Ella
Odessa Young as Amy Mulvaney
Show Kasamatsu as Major Nakamura
Simon Baker as Keith Mulvaney
Essie Davis as Lynette Maison
Dan Wyllie as Rick Maison
Supporting
Thomas Weatherall as Frank 'Darky' Gardiner
William Lodder as Guy 'Rabbit' Hendricks
Fabian McCallum as 'Sheephead' Morton
David Howell as 'Tiny' Middleton
Sam Parsonson as 'Rooster' MacNeice
Taki Abe as Colonel Kota
Charles An as The Goanna
Akira Fujii as Kenji Mogami
Masa Yamaguchi as Lieutenant Fukuhara
Rupert Bevan as The Poet
Ewen Leslie as Edward Lansbury
George Simitzis as Australian POW
Jack McGreal as Australian POW
Production
Development
In March 2018, Fremantle acquired rights to Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan, to adapt into a television series. In November 2019, it was announced Justin Kurzel would direct the series, with Shaun Grant serving as writer. Fremantle later exited the project with Curio Pictures serving as producer instead.
Casting
In November 2022, Jacob Elordi joined the cast, followed by Odessa Young, Ciarán Hinds, Olivia DeJonge, Heather Mitchell, Thomas Weatherall, Show Kasamatsu, Charles An, and Simon Baker in November 2023.
Filming
Principal photography began in November 2023, and filming continued through to March 2024.
Release
Amazon Prime Video distributed the series in Australia, United States, Canada, and New Zealand, with Sony Pictures Television set to distribute elsewhere internationally.
On 17 January 2025, it was announced that after the first presentation at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, the series would be released on 18 April 2025 to coincide with Easter holidays on Amazon Prime Video.
The series was acquired by the BBC for broadcast on BBC One & the BBC iPlayer in United Kingdom. In Germany, Austria and German-speaking Switzerland, the series will be available in Sky, whereas HBO Max will stream the series exclusively in Central and Eastern Europe. In Latin America, the series will be available in NBCUniversal's Universal+. Other deals include RTÉ (Ireland), Movistar Plus+ (Spain), Nova (Greece), AXN (Portugal) and LG Uplus (South Korea).
Reception
Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 8.3/10, based on 37 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "A difficult watch made riveting by director Justin Kurzel and star Jacob Elordi's sterling work, The Narrow Road to the Deep North chronicles the inhumanity of war with fierce intelligence." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 83 out of 100 based on 8 critics, indicating "universal acclaim " reviews.
In a review for The Guardian, Luke Buckmaster awarded the show 4 out of 5 stars, noting the strength of the performances and the complexity of the relationships depicted. He also complimented the direction, writing: "You never doubt the show’s realism, or the compassion underpinning it". Hugh Montgomery of the BBC praised the acting of Elordi and Young and described them as possessing "smouldering chemistry".
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