Sara Dane

Sara Dane
Based on	novel by Catherine Gaskin
Written by	Alan Seymour
Directed by	Gary Conway Rod Hardy
Starring	Juliet Jordan Harold Hopkins Brenton Whittle
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	2
Production
Producer(s)	Jock Blair John Barningham
Cinematography	Ernie Clark
Editor(s)	Philip Reid
Running time	248 mins
Budget	$1.5 million
Release
Original network	Network Ten
Original release	10 June 1982

Sara Dane is a 1982 Australian television miniseries about a woman transported from England to Australia for a crime she did not commit.

The mini-series was based on the best-selling 1954 novel of the same name by Catherine Gaskin. Gaskin had spent two years researching the book, which was inspired by the true story of Mary Reibey, a woman convict who married an officer while travelling to Australia, went on to become a successful businesswoman in her own right, and whose image has been featured since 1994 on the Australian $20 note.

The novel was Gaskin's most successful, selling over two million copies. Film rights were sold and Gaskin announced in 1955 that a movie version would be made at Elstree Studios the following year, but this did not occur.

In 1980 it was announced the South Australian Film Corporation would make a mini-series of the novel for Network Ten, possibly starring Judy Davis and Sam Neill. Eventually Juliet Jordan was cast.

Gaskin later said that Juliet was "not at all what I expected in Sara... but I'm more than delighted Juliet was cast... My young Sara was supposed to be a very strong character. You would have had to have been, to have survived and succeeded in the early days of Australia. If anything, the television Sara is even stronger than the novel's leading character in the end."

...
Wikipedia