Treasure islands

Eve Hewson and Himesh Patel play two love-struck pioneers during New Zealand’s gold rush

- SEAN MARLAND, ALISON SLADE

There’s an intriguing mix of love, murder, magic and revenge in BBC1’s lavish new period drama The Luminaries, set on the west coast of New Zealand at the height of the country’s 1860s gold rush.

Based on Eleanor Catton’s award-winning novel, the six-part mystery follows Anna Wetherell as she arrives in the southern hemisphere from England to forge a new life.

‘It’s so much more than a period drama,’ says Eve Hewson, the daughter of U2 singer Bono, who plays Anna. ‘It’s a story about how the world corrupts a young woman and forces her to confront who she is, yet it’s also a love story and a murder mystery.’

On the last day of her voyage to the town of Hokitika, Anna has a romantic encounter with the charismatic Emery Staines (former EastEnders actor Himesh Patel), who has traveled to New Zealand to dig for gold and fills Anna’s head with great expectations of what the future could hold.