The Explorers - Burke and Wills

[byslantedlight]

So for Part 2 of my project: Martin Shaw as Robert O'Hara Burke (hee - the other connection between MS and Burke just hit me then!), the Australian explorer who crossed the continent from south to North, and came so close to making it back again...

I think, from what I can gather, that this was made by the BBC as one of The Explorers series around 1972, but was re-released in America, with Anthony Quinn introducing it (which is the version I've got) in 1975/6? Does anyone have any better information than that? Does anyone have any other information than that?!

There seems to be very little about this one - or else my ability to google has failed me. On the bright side, there are screencaps under the cut!

Terrible quality I know - apologies. Someone more ept than I could no doubt clean these up, but I shall just post what I can! I guess we're lucky to have anything at all, from back then!

Burke at the beginning of the expedition, August 1860! (D'you know, this was a story that I was never told in school - which, bearing in mind I went to school in Australia, seems a bit odd now...)


He's not very happy that the camel driver has been feeding the camels rum - he doesn't want the men to get into it! The camel driver swears they need it to protect them from scurvy... (Funny how it doesn't seem to have helped sailors any!) But would you wanna be on the wrong side of that glare?!


Burke and Wills made it from Melbourne to the Gulf of Carpentaria - although they turned back before they actually saw the ocean, for fear they wouldn't be able to make it home to tell the tale (ooh, ironic...) - arriving at the depot camp to find that their company had left for the town of Menindee, earlier the same day to help one of the men who had been badly injured.


They attempt to travel on themselves, but their last camel dies, and they are forced to return to the camp. Tragically, and unbeknown to them, their company had returned to search for them while they were away, but they had not left anything to suggest they had been there, and so the camp was again deserted.


They managed to survive for a time, but help did not arrive, and they struck out once more. "The blacks" apparently tried to feed them, but... well, I'm sorry, this is Burke and Wills, it's not a happy ending!


As for our MS, I thought he did an ace job - it's him but it's not him, which I guess is his talent! He seemed alot more natural than in some things - maybe because he was playing a rather grey character, perhaps? A few "act-y" moments, but pretty good I thought...

Comments

[thoraarwin.livejournal.com]

Oh! Who is Robert O'Hara Burke?*looks up wiki* Ah! Never heard of him, but it does seem like something they ought to teach in school...

Thanks for posting pics 'cause this is one of those films I'd never see myself, lol. Too realistic. Definitely not for me:-) Reminds me of The 'Last Place on Earth' a bit... which I haven't seen either:-))

[metabolick.livejournal.com]

I sure am glad you explained the plot to me, because all I got out of it was a lot of stumbling around in the desert to an inevitable bad ending. I just rewatched it with a friend last weekend and I didn't get any more out of it the second viewing. And yes, there are a lot of similarities with The Last Place On Earth as far as it's being like watching a train wreck in slow motion with an inept engineer in the locomotive. Vary painful.

Dave Matthews' site lists the date as 1975, but I think that is an error. Imdb lists the names of the episodes in the series, and the ones which have dates are all from 1972/3. No date given for Burke and Wills, however.

[shaw012145.livejournal.com]

These are amazing. Looks like I missed Part 1 so I will go back through your LJ.

Any chance of sharing these at MP, please and thank you.

Love the shape of the hat he is wearing.

[sunray45.livejournal.com]

I think I did learn about Burke & Wills at school, but that was a very, very long time ago.

Didn't even know that Martin had made that episode in the series.

Thank you so much for posting the pics.

[schnuffi.livejournal.com]

URK! Looks too much like Rübezahl to me... *Whips out straight razor and goes at it*

[londonronnie.livejournal.com]

Eh? You've thrown me for a bit of a loop here, cos I've never heard of this! Admittedly I'm not as well up on MS's appearances as I am on LC's, but I thought I knew about all the stuff he'd done even if I hadn't seen it all. But this is a completely new one on me!

In actual fact I can remember 'Explorers' being one of my fav series of the time - typically the only one I can remember now was the ep about Burton and Speke's search for the source of the Nile, and I don't recall the Burke and Wills (nearly wrote 'Hare' then! *g*) one at all. BUT I know that I do have the BBC book of the series lurking about somewhere on a dusty bookshelf so will have to search it out. I can't remember now whether there are any actual pics from the eps in it, but I suppose that'd be too much to hope for!

Will report back with my findings (if any) asap...