FREEDOM train
A runaway slave makes a daring escape from a Deep South bounty hunter
The Underground Railroad NEW Genre: Drama Available: Friday 14 May Season: 1 Episodes: 10 Runs: 60min TVSW says: Compelling drama
IN 19th-century
America, the ‘underground railroad’ was a metaphor for a network of secret routes and safe houses that was established to help slaves escape from the Deep South. But in Colson Whitehead’s 2016 novel The Underground
Railroad, the writer imagined it as a real system of trains and tunnels that slave Cora uses after escaping from a plantation in
Georgia.
Now, the book, set in an alternate US history before the Civil War, has been turned into a TV series by Barry Jenkins, Oscar-winning director of 2017 film Moonlight, who recalls being enthralled by tales of the so-called railroad as a youngster.
FANTASTIC JOURNEY
‘I remember as a kid hearing about the underground railroad, and picturing black people on trains underground,’ he says. ‘And then you learn it wasn’t actually like that, and it was almost like learning that the tooth fairy or Santa Claus didn’t exist. So when I first read the novel, it made me feel like a kid again’
The story starts with a look at the brutality meted out to slaves, as Cora (Thuso Mbedu) runs away from the plantation, with bounty hunter Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton) in hot pursuit.
Her journey on the underground railroad takes her to the Carolinas, Tennessee and finally Indiana, and the strange and fantastical places – including an apparently idyllic Southern community that hides a dark secret – that she visits along the way also reflect her inner journey, a device that appealed to Jenkins.
‘In this series, our main character and the settings are evolving alongside one another,’ he explains. ‘Every time she enters a new state – a new physical state but also a new emotional state – Cora is taking greater possession of her inner self, yet her outer self is not quite free.
‘Colson created this book that was very grounded in the actual history. But it also has a very romantic and fantastical element.’
He adds that the central character of Cora, whose mother also escaped from the plantation years earlier, really resonated with him.
‘I fell in love with this book because of Cora,’ he says. ‘I love that this random woman, who suffered being enslaved, has gotten to be the bedrock of this huge mythology.’