Heart of the High Country - First Episode

Frank Whitten won probably his biggest audience when 10 million Brits saw him play an outrageous bastard in this primetime melodrama. This first episode sees Ceci (Glaswegian actor Valerie Gogan) arriving from England hoping for a better life, and instead finding herself trapped on a rundown farm with a rapist, a bitter old man and a misfit. New Zealand producers Lloyd Phillips and Rob Whitehouse won finance from TVNZ, Westpac and the UK's Central Television for the six-part miniseries, which was written by Brit Elizabeth Gowans. There were 118 speaking parts, most of them Kiwi.

All the men have chronic lockjaw. The women suffer and endure. If the landscape looks like heaven, the action is better suited to the other place. Even the sheep get sick. Don't let any nostalgia freak convince you that these were less complicated times.

– The Listener, 1 November 1986, Page 18

Key Cast & Crew

Sam Pillsbury

Director

Rob Whitehouse

Producer

Lloyd Phillips

Producer

Elizabeth Gowans

Writer

David Weatherley

As: Doctor Murdoch

John Howard

As: Ginger