VALERIE COGAN starred in this six-part drama series developed by British writer Elizabeth Gowans from her award-winning TV play A Woman of Good Character. Heart of the High Country followed the fortunes of Ceci, a young English woman who emigrates to New Zealand at the turn of the century full of hope for a new life in a new land. When she arrives in the South Island the high country sheep runs already exist alongside smaller farming blocks. There is wealth and poverty. Of all the New Zealand provinces, Canterbury most closely preserves the class structure of England, and Ceci is working class. Plagued by misfortune and trauma, she is raped, has a child and witnesses a murder. Her circumstances are wretched but a twist of fate takes her to a high country station where at last she finds a chance to better herself.
Directed by Sam Pillsbury (The Scarecrow), Heart of the High Country also stars Kenneth Cranham, Peter Bland (Came a Hot Friday), David Letch and Frank Whitten (Open House).
N.Z. colonial tale popular in Britain
Press, 3 November 1986
A New Zealand produced six-part television mini-series, which has already been seen by 10 million viewers in Britain, begins on Two at 9 p.m.
Produced by the independent television company, Phillips-Whitehouse, Ltd, “Heart of the High Country” was shown in England in November and December, 1985, attracting 10 million viewers each night it was screened. The series was released by Central Television and shown at prime time on ITV 1.
Penned by the British writer, Elizabeth Gowans, and developed from her original award-winning play for TVNZ, “A Woman of Good Character,” the series is a dramatisation of the life of a fictional “petticoat pioneer” in New Zealand.
The Glasgow-born actress, Valerie Gogan, has the lead role of Ceci, a young English girl who turns her back on an uninviting life in Britain and sets sail for colonial New Zealand in search of work, a husband and a better life. But, like so many of the women who took the daring step of emigrating during the 1870 s, Ceci had reason to regret her bold move of “no return” — it was relatively easy to emigrate, but much more difficult to make the trip the other way.
First, Ceci had to endure the gruelling three months at sea, and on her arrival in a raw and alien country faced extreme hardship and testing times at the hands of men who were no respecters of the fair sex.
Spanning a period of 20 years, “Heart of the High Country” sees Ceci raped, forced into a lonely marriage, widowed, suffer tragic accidents, and experience animosity from militant Temperance Union women when she resurrects a derelict mining town tavern.
But “Heart of the High Country” is foremost a story of triumph over adversity in the best pioneering spirit. Starring with Gogan are Kenneth Graham, John Howard, David Letch, Gordon Karpin, Peter Bland, Frank Whitten and Bill Johnson.
A producer of the series, Lloyd Phillips, says “Heart of the High Country” is the first big coproduction between TVNZ, the independent industry in New Zealand, and a major English broadcaster.
“I think the independent film and television industry in New Zealand has come of age and, with a more favourable investment climate and closer co-operation with TVNZ, this sort of success can be repeated,” he says.
Available on DVD and vhs
She took ship for New Zealand as little more than a child. In the desolate beauty of the high country she very soon had to become a woman
From relentless drudgery in the parched hills to the green-lawned luxury of a great house from the wild passion of love to the deep despair of less from Victorian England to the Heart of the High Country this is the unforgettable story of Ceci Bowes, try rich as the land she came to call her own.
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