ROLL OUT THE FARRELL (THE NORTH WATER)

Earlier this year, British television viewers were mesmerised by AMC's gripping tale of a doomed Arctic Naval expedition in 'The Terror'.

Within a matter of months, there was another tale of murder and betrayal on the high seas with Andrew Haigh's five part miniseries 'The North Water'.

Based on Ian McGuire's Booker Prize nominated 2016 novel, which made the New York Times' list of the ten best books of that year, it's a savage and atmospheric story.

It's so atmospheric, you might find yourself reaching for a hot water bottle to keep warm.

Jack O'Connell plays Patrick Sumner, an Irish born former Army veteran, who applies to serve on a whaling expedition leaving Hull in the north of England for Greenland and Canada.

The commercial vessel is owned by Tom Courtenay's Baxter and is captained by Stephen Graham's Arthur Brownlee.

Among the crew are Sam Spruell's shifty second in command Michael Cavendish and Colin Farrell's sinister Henry Drax.

A mountain of a man, Drax is an excellent whale hunter but within minutes of us being introduced to him availing of the services of a prostitute followed by a falling out with a local pub landlord in Hull, we see him murdering a man.

Setting off for Greenland and Inuit territory in Canada, the crew are intrigued why someone as educated as Sumner would opt to be the surgeon on a whaling vessel.

Mooring off the Scottish coast, Drax, Cavendish and others take Sumner to the shore for a drinking session.

However this night out quickly descends into a brawl which Drax initiates and ends up in Sumner being knocked out.

Taking Sumner back to the boat and his cabin, Cavendish and Drax snoop through his personal belongings and find a ring and a letter which indicates he was discharged from the Army after serving in India.

Armed with this information, they intend to use it against him as leverage at a future date.

Arriving in the North Water Polynya, Sumner is keen to join the whalers as they hunt seals and eventually a whale.

Drax is the most successful with the harpoon and also in bludgeoning the seals.

However he becomes concerned when Stephen McMillan's cabin boy Hannah asks him to examine him and shows signs of sexual abuse.

Reporting it to Brownlee, he is disappointed that Hannah will not name his attacker when he is summoned to the Captain's quarters.

However when Hannah turns up dead and his corpse is shoved into a barrel, it sparks a huge investigation with Drax quick to allege he witness a gay member of the crew chatting up Hannah.

With Sumner not willing to accept these claims unlike Brownlee, the doctor insists on carrying out a medical examination of the chief suspect, Philip Hill-Pearson's carpenter McKendrick.

But when this appears to exonerate McKendrick and he asks to examine Drax, this course of action has dramatic consequences for the rest of the voyage 

Director Andrew Haigh has built quite a reputation over the past 10 years as the accomplished director of indie feature films like 'Weekend,' '45 Years'  and 'Lean on Pete' and the HBO series 'Looking'.

The Yorkshireman is also an accomplished film editor vwhi has worked over the years with Ridley Scott, Shekhar Kapur, Mike Newell and Harmony Korine on projects ranging from 'Gladiator' and 'Black Hawk Down' to 'Four Feathers,' 'Mona Lisa Smile' and 'Mister Lonely'.

Watching 'The North Water,' you can see why the BBC, CBC and AMC would be so keen to work with a director as good as Haigh who delivers arguably the most visually impressive British television series this year with the help of Canadian cinematographer Nicolas Bolduc.

Not only that but he is also a superb judge of pace and tone - knowing how to build tension during Summer's perilous voyage north.

And as he has demonstrated in his movies, he also knows how to handle a big name cast.

O'Connell is everything you'd wish for as Sumner - empathetic yet enigmatic, principled and vulnerable.

Graham is as reliable as ever as the Captain - a commanding presence.

Spruell catches the eye as the conniving second in charge.

However 'The North Water' is undoubtedly Farrell's series and he takes full advantage of the showiest part as an evil monster of a man.

Bulked up and looking a little like a scruffier version of Robert De Niro's Mendoza in 'The Mission,' he uses every inch of his frame to deliver a big performance as Drax.

His native cunning is reminiscent of Richard Harris' turn as the Bull McCabe in Jim Sheridan's movie of John B Keane's 'The Field'.

However the malevolence also recalls another De Niro performance in Alan Parker's Cajun occult thriller 'Angel Heart'.

With a sea dog accent that could be Cornish and could be from County Kerry, Farrell reminds viewers what an intelligent actor he is.

Courtenay too is a delight in the two episodes he is on the screen, while Peter Mullan is also a very welcome presence as a Priest who turns up towards the end.

However it is Bolduc's cinematography that really impresses the further we dive into the story, capturing the beauty of the Arctic landscapes and also its brutality.

This dichotomy becomes even more apparent as the crew of The Volunteer face increasing hardship and especially in one stunning sequence when Sumner hunts a polar bear in a snowstorm.

Haigh's treatment of McGuire's novel has strong echoes of 'Apocalypse Now' and the novella that inspired it, Joseph Conrad's 'Heart of Darkness' as the voyage gets more perilous and the crew becomes more twitchy.

Ultimately, 'The North Water' is a gruelling tale of endurance and about maintaining a moral compass in the face of corruption and pure evil.

It is a dark story brilliantly told by a filmmaker who continues to plot an exciting course on TV and in cinema.

('The North Water' was broadcast on BBC2 from July 15-August 12, 2021)