The Luminaries

The Luminaries is a 2020 drama television miniseries written by Eleanor Catton (based on her 2013 novel The Luminaries) and directed by Claire McCarthy. The series is centred on a young adventurer named Anna Wetherell (Eve Hewson), who has travelled from the United Kingdom to start a new life in New Zealand during the 1860s West Coast Gold Rush. In New Zealand The Luminaries premiered on TVNZ 1 on 17 May 2020 and then had its first broadcast in the UK on BBC One on 21 June 2020. The series has received mixed reviews from critics, though it went on to earn 14 nominations at the 2020 New Zealand Television Awards, winning 8 of them. Background Eleanor Catton's novel was awarded the 2013 Man Booker Prize. TVNZ summarises the story as an "epic drama (that) tells the 19th-century tale of love, murder and revenge as men and women travel across the world to make their fortunes on the wild West Coast of New Zealand's South Island." The BBC synopsis added that the series is set "in the boom years of the 1860s gold rush". The script was written by Catton herself and was said to be "very different from the book". Trailers for the series, providing additional specifics, were released by the BBC on 12 June 2020.