Mail order brides
Three women fight to survive the man’s world of America’s frontier colonies: Jamestown!
When the Jamestown colony was settled by the British in 1607, only men made the long journey over to America. The eight-episode first season of Jamestown (2017-current) takes place in 1619 and after 12 sweaty, lonely years of grunting in the wilderness, it’s time to wife up. Three women – Jocelyn, Alice and Verity – have set off to marry total strangers, accompanied on the trip by Virginia’s new governor Sir George Yeardley (Jason Flemyng) and his wife Temperence (Claire Cox). Here’s what the boat dragged in, fellas!
1 Feisty Verity (Nimah Walsh) arrives on the day that her tavern-owner hubby-to-be Meredith Rutter (Dean Lennox Kelly) is punished for public drunkenness and blasphemy. “She’s gobby and sarcastic,” explains Niamh. “They’re strong women kicking against a system that doesn’t allow for that.”
Posh, ambitious Jocelyn (Naomi 2
Battrick), who confesses to Alice that she murdered a man, is betrothed to moral Virginia Company administrator Samuel Castell (Gwilym Lee). “She is intelligent and political. She immediately makes things happen in Jamestown. She’s a true believer in equality for women,” says Naomi.
Farm girl Alice (Sophie Rundle) 3
thinks she’s hit the jackpot when sexy Silas Sharrow (Stuart Martin) collects her at the docks, but he’s just taking her to his vile rapist brother Henry (Max Beesley). “Alice is a decent, hard-working farm girl. She has a brutal introduction to her new life,” says Sophie. “Shipped over to be wives? Imagine how terrifying it was!”
WHO’S THE BOSS?
“Women were outnumbered by at least eight to one,” explains producer Sue de Beauvoir, “but this gave them power. They were a prized commodity and seeing how social dynamics shift through their eyes makes this [Jamestown] all the more interesting.”