Australia’s Curio Pictures is behind The Narrow Road to the Deep North 

The BBC has acquired an adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, starring Euphoria star Jacob Elordi.  

The 5 x 45-minute series of the same name, which will air on BBC1, is produced by Australia’s Curio Pictures. It charts a man called Dorrigo Evans (Elordi) who is held captive in a WW2 prisoner of war camp in occupied Burma and spends his later years as a revered surgeon and reluctant war hero. 

Jacob Elordi and Odessa Young Image Prime Video Curio Pictures Sony Pictures Television

Jacob Elordi and Odessa Young (Image: Prime Video/Curio Pictures/Sony Pictures Television)

The Narrow Road to the Deep North was originally ordered for Prime Video in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. It is directed by Justin Kurzel and adapted by writer Shaun Grant from the Booker Prize-winner.

Kurzel, Grant and Flanagan will exec producer alongside Curio’s Jo Porter and Rachel Gardner, with Alexandra Taussig as producer.  

Principal production funding is provided by Screen Australia, with assistance from the NSW Government through Screen NSW’s Made in NSW and PDV Funds. 

It will be distributed by Sony Pictures Television. 

Head of BBC programme acquisition Sue Deeks said: “The Narrow Road to the Deep North is a complex, beautiful, and heart-wrenching series which sensitively interweaves several stages in the life of surgeon Dorrigo Evans…We are so very pleased to bring this truly exceptional adaptation to BBC viewers”. 

Porter and Gardner said: “The Narrow Road to the Deep North is an epic tale of the sustaining power of love under the harshest of circumstances. Curio is honoured to help bring to this spectacular story to life with creators Shaun Grant and Justin Kurzel, novelist Richard Flanagan and our brilliant cast and crew.” 

Earlier this year, the BBC acquired Australian mystery series High Country, also from Curio Pictures and Sony Pictures Television.