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The English women who built America
The true tale of the women shipped out to the first English settlement in the Americas is told in new period drama Jamestown. Expect lashings of lust and brutality, say its stars
The first things you see when you walk onto the set of Jamestown are the gallows and the graveyard. They are stark reminders that in the first English settlement on American soil at the beginning of the 17th century, death was never far away.
The crew spent three months building a replica frontier town here in thick forest in Hungary, complete with imposing wooden ramparts, thatched wattle-and-daub houses, a set of stocks, a working blacksmith’s forge and a towering assembly hall. All this was to bring to life the birthplace of America for Sky 1’s gripping new eight-part period drama, set in Virginia in 1619 and based on a true story.
Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in what was to become the United States of America, and when the drama begins it’s been populated only by extremely tough men for the past 12 years. Just 20 per cent of them had survived the original voyage across the Atlantic to become pioneers in the New World, and since their arrival in this dangerous and hostile environment they’ve struggled to grow crops and endured a terrible famine during which eight out of ten of the remaining inhabitants perished.
But all that’s about to change. After a dozen years on their own the men, including hard-working farmer Henry ( Max Beesley from Mad Dogs and Suits), tavern landlord Meredith (Shameless’s Dean Lennox Kelly) and the town’s new governor Sir George Yeardley (Jason Flemyng from Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels) will be joined by 100 English women who have been selected to sail over as their wives-to-be. As they make the perilous journey, these women have no clue about the brutality of the world they’re entering.
Made by the producers of Downton Abbey, the drama tells the story of the birth of America but it centres on three of these English women – farm girl Alice ( Peaky Blinders’ Sophie Rundle), streetwise and outspoken Ver ity ( Niamh Walsh) and sophisticated Jocelyn (Naomi Battrick).
‘I think it’s very clever to tell the story through the eyes of these three very different women,’ says Sophie, 29. ‘It’s also extraordinary that it really happened, that these women got on a boat and travelled across the world, to unknown territory, and were assigned to men they’d never met, knowing that they’d been there for 12 years without any women. Can you imagine how terrifying that was? But it really did happen. Life was really tough out there, and you sense the frus- tration about how powerless they were. That’s a real theme of the show – these women were bought by these men who would sell land to acquire them, and expected to just get on with it.’
Sophie says the women would have had quite an incentive to make the trip. ‘It was presented to them as a land of opportunity, and times were very tough in England back then. There was no money, and if you were one of many daughters and you were offered the chance to go to a new world with the potential of freedom and prosperity, that might be appealing. There’s also the idea of adventure. I could imagine wanting to escape a dreary village in England and seek adventure in Jamestown.’
The trio form a tight bond as they face all manner of obstacles, not least the men who have bought them. Alice draws the short straw when she finds herself betrothed to farmer Henry, one of the original settlers who’s been hardened by his harsh years in Jamestown. ‘Henry’s basically a good man,’ says Max Beesley, who plays him. ‘He’s a decent fellow who’s looking after his brothers. He brought them over from England to give them a better life. But he’s witnessed some very tough things. One of his younger brothers died of starvation, and Henry had to live on a diet of soil for a while. Land was paramount, so when Henry gives up some of his land to pay for Alice, and then she doesn’t fall for him, he turns into a beast.’
Loud, sarcastic Verity is looking to escape a difficult past as a thief back in England but meets her match in Meredith the drunken tavern keeper. ‘She’s hoping desperately for a new start, and she turns up to find her new husband nailed to a post by his ear for misbehaving,’ says Niamh Walsh, 28. ‘All three women are pinning their
hopes on this brave new world but of course it doesn’t work out that way. I like to think of Jamestown as a Western. There’s intrigue and politics and sex, but also it’s an outpost. It’s boiling hot, there’s a shortage of food, and it’s totally remote. It’s like a crucible. The drama doesn’t pull any punches. There’s blood and death. There’s nothing soft about these women. It’s a violent world and the rule of law means that you can get marched out of the gate and hanged at any moment. You could be hanged for stealing, which is a problem for Verity because she’s a kleptomaniac.’
Jocelyn, the most well-bred of the women, is also the canniest operator. She has a naked desire for power and pursues devious means to advance the prospects of her husband Samuel, an official with the Virginia Company, a commercial trading company created to colonise the east coast of America which presides over the Jamestown settlement. ‘She’s incredibly intelligent and political and she immediately makes things happen in Jamestown,’ says Naomi Battrick, 25. ‘She’s a true believer in equality for women, and she sees her husband Samuel as a moral human being. She wants him to do more, but it’s a completely different landscape in Jamestown. She’s very driven, but that means she has to try to manipulate other people.’
As the series unfolds, the settlers have to cope with sickness and the unwelcome attention of Native Amer ican war r iors, while in one episode rumours that a map of a goldmine has been found cause a commotion among the settlers. For all the challenges of the life portrayed in Jamestown, the cast are adamant viewers will relish the spirited nature of the characters. ‘This feels very real,’ says Sophie Rundle. ‘Times have changed, but people’s dreams, hopes and lusts remain the same. The drama comes from not being able to live your life in the way you want to. These three women rail against that.’
Max Beesley says his role was ‘a tough job’, but adds, ‘it’s brilliant at the age of 45 to be able to do something where you’re pushed to the limit. It is a vast journey people will want to buy into because it’s so visually stunning and the story is so compelling. There are a plethora of plots that people will want to indulge in. You’ll see Machiavellian dynamics and great love stories. It’s an epic tale about the beginning of America. I hope by the end viewers will be on their hands and knees begging to see where it goes next!’
‘There’s nothing soft about these women, there’s blood and death’