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Banished: episode guide

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Part 4

UK: Thu, March 26, 2015
Written by Jimmy McGovern
Directed by Jeffrey Walker

James Freeman has vanished deep into the dense bush. No man has ever been known to survive there and Sergeant Timmins decides following him is futile and way too dangerous for his men.

Back at camp when Major Ross questions Timmins about the escapee, his sergeant is economical with the truth. Word amongst the convicts is that James is dead man, either shot by the soldiers or about to perish in the terrifying and infinite wilderness of the hinterland.

At the officers' tents there is disquiet. Reverend Johnson challenges Major Ross about the misery his sexual demands are causing Katherine. A compromise is reached, which helps empower Katherine and her life becomes more tolerable. But Corporal McDonald who dearly loves Katherine is worried about these new developments. Will this new arrangement bring the threaten of a deeper relationship?

Sharing her sorrow with the insightful convict, Anne Meredith has given Mary Johnson a sense of peace and renewed hope for the future. After years of fearful abstinence, the Johnsons resume their conjugal rights in the cosiness of their canvas tent.

When Stubbins gives Captain Collins his wife's letter to read the honourable officer is in a quandary about whether to tell the young convict what her words actually say. The truth could bring unnecessary heartbreak.

Then against impossible odds James staggers half-dead back into camp. With Marston's body found and identified, James is duly sentenced to hang. But the colony does not have an official hangman. One must be found and no-one wants the job. Will Governor Phillip's enticements work?

Cast:

  • Orla Brady as Anne Meredith
  • Ewen Bremner as Reverend Johnson
  • MyAnna Buring as Elizabeth Quinn
  • Ryan Corr as Private MacDonald
  • Brooke Harman as Deborah
  • David Dawson as Captain Collins
  • Ned Dennehy as Letters Molloy
  • Cal MacAninch as Sergeant Timmins
  • Rory McCann as Marston
  • Tim McGunn as Jefferson
  • Joseph Millson as Major Ross
  • Nick Moss as Spragg
  • Adam Nagaitis as Private Buckley
  • Genevieve O'Reilly as Mrs Johnson
  • Jordan Patrick Smith as Private Mulrooney
  • Russell Tovey as James Freeman
  • Julian Rhind-Tutt as Tommy Barrett
  • Joanna Vanderham as Katherine McVitie
  • David Walmsley as Stubbins
  • David Wenham as Governor Arthur Phillip